Left Hand Suzuki Method
by imacheesecake2
Summary: I gave up on this fanfic... I can't find the time in my life to complete it and it kinda went to shit so my motivation is gone. I'm gonna start a new fanfic soon.
1. Chapter 1

It was a dull day, Ichigo thought that days like this were when god was constipated and wanted to take it out on everyone else. The clouds were all grey and covered up what little sky Ichigo could see past the trees through his window. He didn't want to go outside, because his father had said it was going to rain. In addition, his little sisters were out with him shopping for groceries etc… Ever since he lost his powers, life seemed so mundane and dull. To add to the matter his guitar string had broken and, frankly, he was pretty pissed off at his dad for forgetting to grab some more the last time he was out at the store.

However, what they brought back was a bit of a surprise.

When his family came back it had rained out and their hair was soaking. YYuzu greeted him, along with Isshin's normal tackle. Yet, when he got up, he noticed a boy with raven black hair kneeling over him, gazing at him and offering him a hand. His clothing seemed drab and old, and his hair was a bit of a mess. Nonetheless, he was very attractive and had nice eyes. "Ichigo meet Ishida Uryu!" YYuzu smiled cheerfully and the two males shook hands, looking each other in the eye. Ichigo noticed a slight blush on the other boy's face, he was… cute?. No. Now was not the time to gawk at some stranger, not him, not now.

Still Ichigo was a bit confused; _why was this kid here?_

Karin noticed that look on his face, and whispered in his ear. "He's staying with us."

"Why?" He whispered back.

"He doesn't have a home."

At that very moment, Ichigo got rather pissed off. '_I'd rather live on the streets than share a room with somebody'_he thought, presuming that Uryu was staying in his room. Then, he thought about Rukia, who wasn't half-bad, and sometimes she was nice company to have when he got lonely. Still, he couldn't keep him in a closet all day, and he didn't have to hide him either. Maybe he could convince the boy to sleep Either way this was going to be hell. He could tell right now.

"He'll be staying in your room if that's okay." Said Isshin, although Ichigo had that one figured out.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and noticed that Uryu had brought along some things with him. "Fine, I'll show him my room." He grumbled. "Ishida come upstairs." Ichigo led him to his room and sat down on the bed. "Sit down." Ichigo pointed to the floor, and Uryu nervously sat down on the cold hardwood floor. "You know, I don't have to be doing this right now. I could just tell my dad to take you back to where ever your scrawny little ass came from." Uryu looked at his feet. "But I don't think my dad would enjoy that. He was nice enough to take you in originally. So I think you should listen to what I have to say."

Uryu nodded. He hadn't spoken a word since he got inside.

"Why don't you talk? I'm not going to bite you if you do."

"Pfft… I find that hard to believe." Uryu scoffed. This was the first thing the teenager ever said to Ichigo, who found this snappy remark a bit cute.

"Well then… you might as well put your stuff somewhere decent so I don't have to rot my eyes out looking at them." He retorted; his arms crossed.

Uryu obediently put his bag on the ground and opened it, revealing a magazine, a sewing kit and some clothes, and a few knick-knacks, including a small Buddha statue. Ichigo thought it looked cool.

"Um… where should I put my stuff?" Uryu asked timidly.

"Well… you could put your clothes in the closet on the opposite side of mine and your gay little sewing kit can sit on the floor and your magazine can go anywhere as long as I can't see it." Uryu somewhat flinched when Ichigo said gay little sewing kit; he took quite a bit of pride in his projects. Nevertheless, he followed Ichigo's orders and then sat down on the floor again, holding his little statue.

"So… what do you normally do here? I see you have a guitar. Are you good at it?" He eyed the grey instrument.

"I'm not very good at it yet. I think I just need more practice. Anyways, why do you even care? You seem pretty content with just sitting there so why don't you just shut up and continue?" Ichigo snapped. This kid was pretty much ruining his life by just sitting there; he could at least be quiet.

Ishida yawned, lied down in the floor and fell asleep. It was weird how fast he managed to doze off, maybe he was tired before he came. He started snoring, so Ichigo kicked him a few times to get him to stop. Maybe today wasn't a good day to wear steel toe boots inside.

Ichigo started reading one of his books, and kicked Uryu again because he rolled over onto his feet. This time he got Uryu straight in the abdomen, and woke him up. "Why must you kick me all the time? It almost seems like you enjoy it. Do you?"

"I dunno. It seems like you enjoy making a big deal of everything." Ichigo glared at the smaller boy icily.

"I just rolled over, Kurosaki. You're the one who makes a big deal." He returned the stare and then sat down again. "Do you do anything other than read?"

"Yeah, I just like reading. Also, I don't like people watching me do things so reading seems good." He turned the page of his book. Hamlet.

"Oh… well I'm not watching you, so don't hold up." Uryu turned his back on Ichigo and grabbed his sewing kit. Maybe if he looked inconspicuous Ichigo would start playing his guitar. He pulled out a shirt he was working on and started stitching on a cross pattern. Sure enough, Ichigo pulled out his guitar and lazily strummed out some chords. Uryu liked the song he was making, and sat closer to him. He resumed sewing, and started humming a bit, only to get kicked in the shin.

"Stop that. It's annoying." He said, and resumed strumming.

"Sorry…" Uryu started stitching again. Ichigo was watching him here and there. Uryu made every stitch perfect; he never poked his finger, and he never had to redo a thread. In addition, he seemed to always have just the right amount of thread to finish up. His fingers graced the fabric, and when he seemed happy with his creation, he put it away. He set it in his bag carefully and sat back down on the floor yet again. Then the two ignored each other for another hour until Ichigo snapped and asked Uryu some questions about himself.

"So what did you do to live on the street? I mean, you'd need to eat." He eyed Uryu cautiously.

"Well, I did what I needed to do." Uryu blushed and looked away. Ichigo took the hint.

"So you were a hooker?" His eyes widened slightly.

"Well if you put it that way it kind of hurts my feelings but yeah, you could say." He blushed a little deeper. "I guess there's no nice way to put it however."

"What the hell man?" Ichigo kicked him in the back. "Why didn't you get help?"

"Because at the orphanage they forced me to do things I didn't want to do. Then, they kicked me a lot because I did something they didn't like. So I ran away." He paused. "And now I'm here."

Now Ichigo felt a bit guilty about the whole kicking thing, but he tried not to show it. He still thought Uryu should know his place here.

"Hm. Well I guess we should try and make this work… Just keep your mouth shut and maybe I'll let you sleep on the bed tonight," he sighed. "Maybe."

Uryu pulled out another project, this time he was embroidering a pair of jeans with some crosses on the pockets. Maybe he would just not talk to Ichigo and they wouldn't have a problem. That was his strategy for the rest of the afternoon. He listened to Ichigo's guitar and when he finished up the jeans he worked on knitting a scarf. Then another, a different color. And then another.

"Why are you knitting so many scarves?"

"I'm knitting scarves for your family. As, like, a gift because you guys took me in… See, this one is for Karin," he held up a deep red one.

"I take it the pink one is YYuzu's?" Uryu nodded. "Who is the blue one for?"

"Your father." Uryu was just finishing up that one. "Yours is going to be orange. It'll look great." He brought out a burnt orange ball of yarn and got it ready. It wasn't bright, glaring orange like Ichigo's hair, it was more of a muted, dark orange.

"Oh, thanks. I think they'll like these" Ichigo thumbed Yuzu's scarf. It was really soft and double knit. "These are really nice, but where _exactly_ did you pick up knitting from?"

"I don't really remember much of my life from before I was seven. I don't really want to, because my mom died and Ryuken was a real dick." Ichigo assumed that Ryuken was the boy's father. Uryu continued knitting. "By the way where is your mom?" He asked, not looking up from the work in progress.

"She's dead." Ichigo looked a bit depressed. "That's the type of thing you don't really get over, neh?"

"Agreed." Uryu started knitting again, looking a bit _too_ concentrated. "This yarn is a bit thinner than everyone else's, so yours may take a while."

"Don't worry. I needed a scarf anyways." A hint of a smile pulled at Uryu's lips.

"Well I feel very useful now." He smiled wider.

For a while they stayed quiet. Ichigo was being a nerd and played power chords for a great deal of time, and Uryu started humming again. Ichigo whacked him in the back of the head with a newspaper. It was still better than a kick but Uryu rubbed his head for a second.

"Nii-san! Uryu-kun! Dinner is ready!" YYuzu chanted.

"Coming!" Ichigo shouted back. Ichigo ran down the stairs to eat. Uryu followed him, and almost fell. Ichigo chuckled a bit, to Uryu's disdain.

When everyone had sat down, Yuzu bombarded Uryu with questions.

"What did you do to get food and money?" Yuzu looked at him with wide eyes.

"I would rather not talk about it." He said flatly.

Isshin and Karin gave a knowing look, and Uryu blushed again.

"Did you ever have to steal?"

"Nobody ever _has_ to steal. I didn't steal at all, too. I made money my own way."

"Hm… why didn't you go to an orphanage?"

"Because the people there treated me like a dog. I decided to run away and live on my own. Until you guys found me of course!" Uryu smiled cheerfully at Yuzu, who returned it. She pranced off to the kitchen and brought back some beef and broccoli. Ishida's tummy rumbled at the smell of it.

Everyone giggled a bit at the noise. As Yuzu served everybody Uryu thought about the last time, he ate. He didn't remember it very clearly, because he got the shit beaten out of him, afterwards and then these men forced him to do things he didn't really want to do.

As they ate, everyone made small talk. Ichigo stayed very quiet, and Uryu wasn't exactly a great conversationalist so he just listened.

After Uryu had eaten at least two bowls of it, he volunteered to do the dishes. He loaded all of the plates and bowls into the dishwasher, then did all of the cups by hand so they were all sparkly. "Thanks Uryu!" Yuzu tweeted.

"No problem. Is there anything else I can help with?" He asked, looking down at Yuzu.

"Nope, I can't think of anything else…" She said quietly.

"Uryu were going upstairs." Ichigo demanded.

"Okay…" he yawned. His big meal made him tired, and he wondered if Ichigo would let him sleep on the bed. He seemed nice… enough, and he wouldn't take up much space. Maybe he could ask.

When they made it to Ichigo's room Uryu sat down on the floor. He was yawning like crazy, and he was making Ichigo yawn too.

"Stop yawning." Ichigo kicked him in the arse.

"Ow! Would you stop kicking me?" Uryu whipped around and shouted.

"Nope." Ichigo yawned again. "We're gonna have to share the bed."

"Okay that's fine with me." Uryu smiled.

"I wasn't asking" Uryu's smile fell. Ichigo was such a downer.

"Okay… well thank you for sharing with me." He smiled, trying to see if he could crack that permanent scowl on Ichigo's face.

"Well I'm not doing you a favour, there are some things that you should just expect people to do for you." He said, looking in his drawers for something to wear to bed.

"Just… _please_ don't touch me with your feet. I can't _stand_ it when someone touches me with their feet." That had been a huge pet peeve for Uryu.

"Me too." Ichigo replied.

He tossed Uryu a pair of blue pyjama pants, which he hurriedly stripped down and put on, making sure Ichigo didn't see him. He blushed at the fact he hadn't been given a shirt. He hid under the blanket quickly so Ichigo didn't see all the bruises on his often-mutilated body. He pressed his belly up to the cold wall trying to make himself as small as possible, but Ichigo kept cuddling up next to him in his sleep. He felt his cheeks going pink, he felt warm with Ichigo pressing up against him. 'Maybe that's normal?' he thought, wondering if Ichigo always did this to people or something.

Ichigo yawned in his sleep and nuzzled his face into Uryu's neck.

They both slept well.

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	2. Chapter 2

_**Authors Note- I guess I'll explain my failure of a first chapter. I feel guilty… SO HERE GOES! Yeah… they are very OOC. All of them… -.- Ichigo seems a bit violent here and Uryu probably wouldn't turn to selling his body for money… I'd say I didn't do too retched with Ichigo's family though. (?) But OOC is kind of bad so I'll try to fix that. Also not really very AU- Gemini, I have no idea if you read up to the point where Ichigo loses his powers or something, but this story is set 17 months after Aizen's defeat, but Uryu is homeless so slight AU. I like AU… :3 Also, for Uzu's name, I always write it Ūzu on paper, but I lack the effort to insert the long vowel thing. Maybe I can do it this chapter. I felt that the steel toe boot thingy was relatively 'humorous'. Yeah you got me. But Americans that live in florida do wear their shoes inside so they don't "NEVER wear shoes inside. Canadians do too, and I live in Canada so I guess I just forgot about Japanese peoples… **_

The next morning Uryu woke up to being kicked off the bed rather violently and falling onto the floor.

"I thought I said that I hate it when people touch me with their feet!" He got up and put his glasses back on. "What is your problem?"

"You wouldn't wake up so I decided to help you out. Also, you smell okay for a homeless person. Like, a flowery type of smell." Ichigo turned onto his back.

"Really? That's what the guys at the orphanage said. And we only got to shower twice a week."

"Well do you want to have one now?" Ichigo asked.

"That would be good. I haven't showered in… I don't know." To be honest Uryu hadn't showered in two weeks. And he felt horrible about it. "Um… where is the shower?"

"Here I'll show you." Ichigo led him down the hall to the bathroom. It was mostly white, with a blue granite sink. Also, there were light blue mats in front of the toilet and bathtub. Uryu really liked the color scheme they had going on. Ichigo exited, and Uryu began taking his clothes off. He examined his profile in the mirror, even though he stuffed himself the night before, he could still count 12 ribs. It seemed like the only place where he had extra fat was on his hips. He hated that…

He stepped into the shower and let the warm water wet his hair. He loved showers, it was a good time to just relax and think about things. He thought about how Ichigo subconsciously wrapped his arms around him the night before and the warmth that radiated off of him. Uryu decided not to bring it up; maybe he would do it again tonight? He'd just have to wait and see what was going to happen today. He washed his hair with Ichigo's shampoo, which definitely smelt a bit foreign to his nose. It smelt a bit like cologne, so Uryu made sure he rinsed it out well so the scent wouldn't stick.

After that Uryu stepped out of the tub. He felt a bit cold now; the water was so warm and inviting. Now he was shivering, and his teeth chattered. He found a towel, wrapped it around his waist and skittered to Ichigo's room as fast as possible. There he found Ichigo tuning his guitar.

"Um…" Uryu looked at his clothes that he had recently made. "Ichigo I need to change."

"Don't worry. It's not like I'm a girl or anything."

Uryu shrugged and removed his towel. He made it an issue to make sure that Ichigo couldn't see anything. When he was finally dressed he watched Ichigo play his guitar. He was getting a bit better at this song he was trying to play, but he always swore when he missed a note or played a chord wrong.

When Ichigo finally put the guitar down Uryu clapped and smiled.

"Hm. Looks like I attracted an audience. Well that's good because I thought I'd give up." Ichigo got up and tried to ignore Uryu. But it was pretty hard because he was wearing some of the tightest skinny jeans he'd ever see on a guy. Still, he walked off and put his guitar on the stand.

Uryu sniffed his hair. It still had a bit of a residual scent on it from the shampoo he used. It smelt pretty weird on him and he didn't particularly like it. Maybe he could use his money he had saved up to buy the old hair stuff he used. He had maybe 300 dollars left from buying all of his thread and yarn so he probably could get some conditioner too. Uryu was positive that his hair would be horrible when it dried.

Ichigo yawned out of boredom. Now he had nothing to do, really. So he applied his efforts to cleaning his room up a bit, which meant he was really desperate to kill boredom. Uryu felt horrible sitting on his butt watching someone else clean so he got up and helped him too. When they were finished Ichigo's room was immaculate, thanks to Uryu.

"We did a good job, neh?" Ichigo turned to Uryu, who nodded in agreement. "But why'd you help? You didn't make the mess."

"I feel bad watching others work. It's a bit of a weakness of mine." It was true. He always helped the janitor lady at the orphanage. She was old and kind and her eyes told a story.

"Oh. Are you like a germophobe?"

"A bit, I lysol things often. But I shared a bed with someone else so I guess I'm not that bad."

"Okay. Well not that I'm complaining about it but don't clean it when I'm not in here, k?" Ichigo hated people going in his room when he wasn't around.

"Fine. But please don't make a huge mess." Uryu sat down on the bed.

"Don't try to tell me what to do with my own bedroom." He flicked Uryu on the back of the head. "Learn your place here. You can't tell me what to do, get used to it."

Uryu sighed and remembered how much of a dick Ichigo was to him. It seemed like he might've been opening up a bit, he guessed he was wrong. Maybe he could get to him. Somehow… He sat there with his mouth open for a bit thinking of how he could get to him.

Ichigo nudged him with his foot a few times. "Hello? Anyone Home?"

"Wha- oh. It's you.

"Yeah it's me who the hell else would it be?"

"I dunno… I was just thinking about maybe cooking dinner tonight…"

"Jeez… you sew, knit, clean, and cook? Are you a woman?" Uryu just looked at him funny.

"I question your eyesight, Kurosaki."

"You kind of do look like a woman…"

This time it was Uryu's turn to kick Ichigo in the face. It was well aimed, and had quite a bit of bite to it. Ichigo rubbed his chin.

"Hm. Not bad, for a girl."

Uryu glared rather demonically at Ichigo. He could be rather scary when he wanted to be. But Ichigo knew that if he acted frightened or submissive Uryu would never really learn where he stood in this house. He tried the sarcastic road instead and stuck with it.

"Oohhh… That's pretty scary Uryu."

Ishida tried to punch Ichigo in the face, but had his fist grabbed in mid air. He had no idea just how fast and strong and fast Ichigo was. Uryu couldn't move his hand, and he felt very vulnerable there. But he guessed he had it coming for trying to swing at someone with a body like that. But he was deceivably strong himself, and used his other hand to get Ichigo in the stomach. He wound up hurting his hand, but Ichigo got it a bit worse. He let go of Uryu, and held his stomach for a second.

"Ow… was that necessary?"

"Well you shouldn't have grabbed my wrist." Uryu blushed and looked at his feet. "I just don't like guys people touching me."

Ichigo realized why Uryu might not have liked being restrained, because of what happened at the orphanage. Maybe he was actually traumatized, and felt that if he couldn't get away he was vulnerable. Was he really that frightened something like that would happen to him again? It seemed a little oversensitive for his personality, but maybe he had a bit more dynamics to himself than a bitchy little problem. But he'd rather not think about Uryu any other way. Problem. Issue. Pain. Obstacle. Not even really a human, but an issue. Still he couldn't help but feel a bit bad for what happened to him in the past. Could it really be that bad?

Ichigo tried to change the subject. "So you're offering to cook dinner tonight? What do you wanna make?"

"I was thinking maybe ramen, or miso soup. But if you don't want soup I could do curry chicken and rice, too. In fact, what do you want to eat?"

"Well we had rice last night so let's do miso."

"Oh, I was definitely thinking that too." In fact if Ichigo said any of the others he would've done miso anyways. Miso and mackerel. He'd go out and buy a fish and show the Kurosaki family that he was worth keeping. (Ūzu knew that she'd keep him here no matter what, but Ichigo would throw him back to the orphanage any day.) "Would you walk with me?" Uryu felt a bit guilty asking someone that seemed to want to hit him more than get to know him. But it was better than risk going alone and get beaten up again.

"Well, I guess I haven't been out in a while. I could use a walk." Ichigo put on his hoodie. "Do you even have a coat to put on?"

"No." Ichigo was pretty surprised. The boy seemed to like making clothes, so why didn't he make something decent to walk around in?

"Here. Use this one." Ichigo tossed him a very dark blue hoodie. "Its way too small for me so you use it." Uryu put it on happily, it was nice and warm and he liked the color. They said goodbye and started walking down the street. Ishida seemed pretty content with not talking to Ichigo, and they walked in near silence. Ichigo finally spoke up and asked Uryu a bunch more questions.

"Which orphanage did you go to?"

"I'd prefer not to talk about it."

"Why not?"

"I'm trying not to think about what happened there. It was hell and hell is bad is it not? So can we please just not talk about it?" Uryu seemed rather worried and that shut Ichigo up.

"Okay. Well… where did you work when you were…" Ichigo remembered what Uryu's previous "profession" and trailed off. He guessed Uryu must have been absolutely starving or something to turn to that because he seemed like a proud guy now that he got to know him a bit. Maybe this would be better than he thought?

When they got to the fish market, the place was totally swamped. Ichigo decided to link arms with Uryu to keep track of him. It severely embarrassed them both, but it was worth it. If he lost Uryu, Ūzu would totally blame him, Karin would freak out on him and Isshin would snap and go all around the country looking for him. So avoiding that scenario all together would be nice.

Uryu put up his hood and pretended to be a girl or something. It was easy for him, he just pushed some of his hair back behind his ear and if he squeezed his shoulders together tight enough to give him lumps that looked like somewhat like a pair of boobs. He could even talk like a girl so Ichigo stuck with it.

When they had bought a rather small fish (they only needed enough to make a stew) and made their way home. Uryu didn't really make an effort to talk to people very often, so he was terrible at making conversation. He was quite happy with not linking arms with Ichigo, so he had nothing to complain about. He just looked up at the sky and walked. Today it was clear, blue and the sun made Ichigo's hair light up like wild fire. He got so absorbed in the beauty of the city and parks, that it left him a bit open.

Ichigo pressed a very cold juice box up to Uryu's cheek. He automatically recoiled and squeaked a bit, almost jumping onto the street. Ichigo stopped him, by yanking his arm. "Ow!"

"Don't be a wuss. Anyways it's better than getting hit by a taxi." Uryu noticed a yellow taxi honking at him.

He blushed and turned away. "Thanks."

They walked back home, talking about how all of the taxi drivers were very reckless and should watch where they're going.

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_**Please Review! I luv them and if you do I'll update faster, especially constructive criticism! VERY, **__**VERY **__**helpful! :3 but praise is good too. derp. **_


	3. Herp Derpin' Longish Chapter 3

_**Okay… I do know that Yuzu is spelt like that. It's just that the scanlations I read were spelling it like Uzu, and the scanlation group I belong to spells it like that too. Force of habit. Jeez people are persistent… Also, I kind of thought I should say something about the whole currency thing… I feel like I'm getting a bit too defensive… I thought maybe it would be like equivalent. But apparently I should "Research" I have but I'm too lazy… Also because I kept you waiting I makes de super de duper long-ish chapter! :P**_

When they got home they noticed that Yuzu (There ya happy? Derp." was about to start cooking dinner.

"Yuzu, Ishida-san is making dinner. I hope you don't mind…" Ichigo stated nervously. He knew how much his little sister enjoyed cooking and that kind of thing. But tonight she'd have to let Uryu have a crack at it.

"Oh… What's he making?" She asked, eying the little mackerel Uryu had in his bag.

"Well, I was thinking maybe we could have miso stew tonight, but if you don't want to I can make anything else, really." Uryu said sheepishly, he remembered he hadn't consulted anyone in their family but Ichigo. He was nervous someone had some weird allergy to fish, or if one of them just didn't like fish.

"Ooh! I can't wait and see what you'll make. You seem like the kind of guy that can cook." Yuzu chirped. Uryu just blushed and scratched the back of his neck.

"You really think so?" This time he looked away a bit. This little girl seemed perceptive. A little _too_ perceptive. Maybe she was like her father, who seemed to read him like a book too. But she was cute and really had it all together. "At the orphanage I helped a lot. The old janitor really liked me and she'd tell me stories while I helped her cook and clean so it was more than worth it."

"Hm. That's nice." Karin entered the room. Uryu jumped a bit, he didn't hear her sneaking up on him.

"Karin! You scared the life out of him. He's scared stiff!" Yuzu tried to shake a trembling Uryu. She thought she could see a ghost coming out of his nose.

"Sorry Uryu…"

When he finally stopped shivering he turned around to see Ichigo about ready to pinch the back of his neck. "Uh…?"

"That's how I get people to move, wake up, etc…" Ichigo trailed off when Uryu started glaring at him. "But you seem okay now so I won't."

"Okay. I just hate it when people sneak up on me. But I knew you weren't trying to so don't feel bad, 'kay?" He ruffled Karin's hair. "Well… Yuzu do you want to help me cook a bit?"

"Sure! What should I help with first?"

"Well… you could help by chopping up some chives, and I'll make a broth. Do you guys have any tofu? It tastes good when you cube it up and put them in the broth." Yuzu looked in her fridge. They did in fact have some leftover tofu. "Oh perfect!"

Uryu began boiling some water and put some dried shavings of skipjack in the water to make a broth. When Uzu finished chopping the chives she dropped them in there. Ichigo stayed in the kitchen and sat on the counter. He wondered how Uryu would make it; maybe his family wouldn't have the right ingredients? That would kind of suck, because it smelled wonderful so far. They resumed working; Uryu had assigned Yuzu with stirring and watching the soup cook, while Uryu diced the tofu in to perfectly uniform sized cubes. In fact, he got mad if he made a cube even slightly narrower than another.

Then Uryu put some miso paste they had in their cupboard, which was the most important part of it. (Otherwise it'd just be soup) When he was done dissolving it he put the now cooked fish slices in.

"Well, we're done here." Uryu and Yuzu looked at the perfectly done soup. It looked wonderful, and smelt even better. "I think we may have out done ourselves, neh?" Yuzu nodded. When it was time for dinner and everyone sat down, Uryu served it up.

"This smells really good Uryu." Isshin stated the obvious.

Everyone said Itadaminashi and made themselves busy with eating. They all complimented Uryu and Uzu's soup, and the entire pot was gone. "Good, then there won't be any leftovers to pack up. Ichigo, could you help me do the dishes?"

"I dunno… you're better at them than me so why don't you?" Ichigo stated lazily. Uzu and Karin glared at him at the same time and with deathly intensity. "Well then…" He got up and got busy getting the water hot and soapy. He knew Uryu was a neat freak and he couldn't stand it, but he kind of liked how shiny the cups look when they are washed by hand, so he started loading the dishwasher with the cooking utensils, bowls and pots. Uryu came in the room, and thanked Ichigo for getting the water ready.

"Oh no problem." Uryu started with the cups, Ichigo was almost already done the dishes. When he was done Uryu was just finishing rinsing the dishes, so he dried and put them away. When they were finished with the chore, Ichigo went upstairs and flopped on the bed. He felt like falling asleep right there, but Uryu entered right when his eyes were closing. Lovely.

"You look really tired. Why?" Both of them hadn't stayed up much longer than ten, and Ichigo woke up with even more energy than normal. Maybe it was the walk. He hadn't been out in a while, and really wasn't up for doing much. Still, how did Uryu get him to go with him for the walk? It seemed like anything that had to do with Uryu, he'd go with him. Doing chores may be a bit of a stretch though…

"I dunno. We did walk 40 blocks or so." Ichigo replied bluntly. They did walk half of Karakura town.

"Well… that's a valid response. I guess I could use some sleep."

Ichigo yawned a bit. "I'm so tired" he stretched out, and drifted off.

'_Okay…_' Uryu didn't have any pyjamas on him, and his jeans were too tight to fall asleep in. He decided to just get in his underwear and fall asleep like that on the floor.

3 a.m.

Ichigo reached out to find Uryu. He wasn't there, and quite frankly he was like a Chihuahua. He'd stick with you, steal your body heat, and then ditch you again. He peeked over the edge of his bed, and saw Uryu asleep on the floor. "Ishida? What are you doing down there?"

"I _was _sleeping." His glare was visible, even though the room was shrouded in total darkness.

"Get the fuck up here."

"I'm in my underwear." Uryu blushed.

"That's fine." Ichigo demanded.

"Well if you insist…" Uryu climbed up onto the bed awkwardly. It wasn't bad sleeping in a bed. Actually, Uryu had to admit that he really enjoyed cuddling with Ichigo in the middle of the night, even if he always ditched him eventually. When he rolled away from Uryu, Uryu shifted his body as close to Ichigo as he was before, and he realized what Uryu was doing. Ichigo just stuck with him until he got cold again and rolled in to Uryu again.

When they woke up, Ichigo yanked the blanket off of both of them.

"What the hell Kurosaki?" Uryu pulled it back on to his long legs; they were a bit shocked by the cold air that assaulted his body. Also he wasn't particularly inclined to show off his body right now.

"The alarm clock was going off and it was pissing me off. It's summer break." Ichigo pressed the button on the top and yawned. He stretched his lean body and yawned again. "What an annoying sound." Ichigo put on a t-shirt and jeans.

Uryu got up in his underpants and put on some clothes. He wasn't really against wearing the same pants twice in a row but eventually he would need to wash them. He sat down on Ichigo's bed. "Well I guess there is no use trying to go to sleep again. What should we do now?"

"I dunno. Are you hungry?"

"Nope." Uryu said, putting exaggeration on the "p".

"Me neither." Ichigo sat a bit closer to Uryu than the latter felt comfortable with. He shifted away. "What's wrong?"

"Y-you seem a bit- err… you just sat really c-close to me and I moved. Okay?"

Ichigo blushed and shifted away a bit too. "I guess…"

"Sorry. I just don't like people getting too close. I guess you could say I'm scared of people in general…" Uryu blushed too, but had looked away before Ichigo noticed. Uryu tried to sit a bit closer to Ichigo; he decided that he was being a bit unreasonable. What happened last night? He didn't get scared or red in the face like he was now. He trusted Ichigo, maybe even better than anyone else, but that was because he was the only person he really got to know. (Besides the old lady at the orphanage, but she didn't count because she was an old lady.) But why?

"Ishida?" Ichigo looked at Uryu, a pink blush still visible on his creamy skin.

"Yeah, Kurosaki?"

"Would you mind if I called you Uryu?" He looked away, until Uryu pulled his chin to face him.

"I guess. But don't try any nicknames. I will kill you if you do." Uryu stared at him. "Anyways, can I call you Ichigo?"

"Duh. Wouldn't it be creepy if I called you by your first name and you called me by my last?" Uryu blushed and realized how stupid he just sounded.

"Yeah, a bit I guess…" Uryu thumbed through his hair. It was beginning to smell normal again, Ichigo's smell had finally worn off of it. They sat there for a while, Ichigo was staring at the fan, waiting for a leprechaun to jump out of the wall, or for his computer to turn into a robot. Whichever. "So, _Ichigo._" Uryu smiled. It felt kind of nice saying Ichigo. It was nice, and the meaning made him think of sweet things. He was tired and let his mind trail off until they both fell asleep.

Ichigo buried his nose in Uryu's hair. It smelt like normal, as far as he could tell, while Uryu nuzzled into Ichigo's chest. Ichigo kind of reminded Uryu of a statue, he was toned, chiselled and he had a nice-ish face. Ichigo might not be the best person he knew as of now, he wasn't half bad after Uryu got to know him. Uryu pressed his body up to Ichigo's. They slept until nine, (They fell asleep at 7) Ichigo jerked the blanket off of them and shook Uryu awake. He moaned and opened his eyes slowly. He looked like an angel for a few seconds. Shiny hair, perfect skin, pretty face… yep. Angel. He even had a nice mug on him.

"Well it's late. My dad may be an idiot, but it's nice to see him off before his business meetings." Ichigo and Uryu got dressed. The former shinigami was trying to contain his urges at the now ever so vulnerable boy standing beside him. _'Ichigo! Where's your head at? That's the last thing he needs right now!'_ A little voice in his head named "Conscience" rattled off. Ichigo had thought that it might've been his hollow, but since he lost his powers he couldn't hear what he had to say. That was the only thing he really got any benefit from losing his powers. That hollow was always jabbering at him, sometimes not even making very much sense. But he still was having pretty dirty thoughts about the boy.

"Ichigo, what's wrong?"

"Oh nothing." Ichigo blushed and scratched the back of his head. He was caught staring at Uryu's ass. He looked so cute in his underwear and shirt. "Well then… Could ya hurry up? Sorry to sound like a jerk or anything but I really need you to." Uryu nodded and yanked on the very tight pants again. They hugged his ass really tight, and Ichigo was staring at the lines again.

"Ichigo. Stop that." Uryu mumbled something along the lines of pervert and yawned. He was still a bit tired and the last thing he needed was Ichigo stressing him out. "Oh, I'm so tired."

Ichigo led the other boy downstairs where they were greeted by Karin and Yuzu. Yuzu had made a humble breakfast of bacon and eggs. Ichigo and Uryu saw off Isshin and returned to the dining room to finish off the rest of the food. They were like locusts, they'd come in, eat, then leave. Uryu noticed Ichigo seemed extremely absorbed in the T.V. show. It was like a Japanese "How It's Made", today they were making motorcycles, toothbrushes and pillows. Right now they were showing how they got the bristles in the broom. It looked pretty cool, maybe that was what got Ichigo interested in it.

Uryu rested his head on Ichigo's shoulder. He was surprised to see that Ichigo didn't move at all. Uryu yawned and closed his eyes. He was super tired today because Ichigo kept him up all night; so he didn't really mind looking like Ichigo and himself were on a theatre date. Ichigo tried to sleep too, his show was over and there was nothing better to do. He was tired too because his heart was racing all night from Uryu's rather close proximity to him. Also he definitely could dream to the smell of Uryu's hair all day. Uzu watched them sleeping. "Look at Nii-San" Yuzu beckoned Karin over quietly.

"What am I looking at exactly?"

"They look so cute!" Yuzu pointed at her brother, and "brother".

"Yeah I guess. I'm gonna take a shower. You make sure they don't do anything stupid, k?" Karin went upstairs with a towel hanging on her left shoulder. She didn't mind Uryu, he cooked well and cleaned, but she didn't bother to get to know him very well. She decided that she should try later.

Ichigo got up and shifted Uryu off of him so he could get up. Uryu seemed really light. Like, 10 kilograms underweight for his age and height. Ichigo made it his new job to fatten Uryu up a bit. But how? Maybe he could sneak something in his food and drinks, but he would probably get caught by Yuzu and she'd be mad. If he could tell Yuzu what he was doing and that Uryu was underweight, she'd definitely go with it.

"Nii-san?" Yuzu said timidly.

"Yeah?" He sat down at the table, Yuzu followed.

"Do you consider Uryu your brother?"

"Should I?" He asked with a bit of a crack in his voice. He realized that Yuzu did.

"I don't know. I do. He's just great; isn't he?" Yuzu cheered. Ichigo had long since realized that his family really enjoyed Uryu being there with them. He wondered if he should tell Yuzu about his little plan right now when they were on topic, but decided against it. Yuzu probably wouldn't feel too great about putting things in other people's food.

It was probably around 11 when Uryu woke up. He felt someone was watching him and he didn't like it. He opened his eyes to see Karin was trying to wake him up. Turns out she was plugging his nose and covering his nose. If he hadn't sensed her presence then he would have died of suffocation, he slept like a rock either way. He sat up, and heard Karin tell Yuzu that her "mission" was complete. Ichigo was sitting on the coffee table like a kid. He was making a comic strip, but the art was kind of bad and everyone was a stick figure.

"You were out for a while." Ichigo said as soon as he saw Uryu had woken up. He snickered as he noticed Uryu almost fell off the couch.

"Yeah. I feel better now." Uryu sat up and looked at what the comic that Ichigo was making. It was pretty funny, but it seemed like Ichigo couldn't draw a couch very well and Ichigo was getting a bit mad about that.

"dammit, I'll work on it later." Ichigo folded it up and put the little piece of paper in his pocket. Uryu found Ichigo really funny at times.

"Do you want me to draw a couch for you?" Uryu asked quietly.

"Can you?" Ichigo turned around.

"Yeah sure. What kind of couch?" Uryu picked up a pencil.

"Any kind. Just don't erase the guy on there. He took a while to draw." Ichigo pointed at a guy with hair that suspiciously resembled Uryu's. He set the piece of paper down on the table in front of Uryu, who got to work immediately. He carefully sketched out a couch that looked the one he had just napped on; being careful not to mess up the guy Ichigo had apparently taken a while to draw. (He seriously doubted that.) When he was done he called Ichigo back. "That looks really good. But when you offered to draw me a couch I didn't ask for a masterpiece." Uryu smiled. _'Was that a compliment?_' he wondered.

Ichigo drew for about fifteen more minutes until he was satisfied with his little comic. He showed it to Uryu, who chuckled at it and handed it back. It was a joke about a public service announcement. I won't explain it because it looked better on paper but it was good. "This is really good Ichigo. Maybe I can teach you some drawing things though," said Uryu.

"That would be cool. The only things I can really draw are pokemon. Even those are hard." Ichigo sighed.

"Okay." Uryu turned the corner, and ran right into Karin. Surprisingly Uryu was the one that fell back. Embarrassed, he got back up and waited for Karin to pass. He could tell that today was going to be a bit different. He didn't want to hide out in Ichigo's room like he normally did, because Ichigo wasn't there, and Karin seemed like she could beat the shit out of him any day. The only person he really thought was normal here was Yuzu and even she had her quirks. Today he'd try to get to know everyone better.

It was nice out today, maybe Uryu could get Ichigo to go outside and walk with him. For someone so muscular he didn't really get out that much. Sometimes it seemed like he only went outside when he needed to. But he did get a lot of stares from people because of his hair; also he had a really tweaked sense of style. Today he didn't look half bad, aside from the fact that his t-shirt was a bit short.

"Hey Ichigo do you want to go out? We should get some fresh air and also I want to go get some tayaki." Uryu approached Ichigo with a nice smile on his face.

"Yeah sure I guess. Why Tayaki?" Ichigo noticed that Uryu had a wad of cash in his hand. He decided he didn't want to know how Uryu made that kind of money. As he wondered about it he figured that he should maybe get Uryu a new hoodie and jacket, because the one Uryu borrowed from him was way too big.

"I dunno. Do you not like it?" asked Uryu.

"I don't mind it. It just seems like an odd choice for someone like you."

"Hm. Well could you walk with me anyways?" Uryu really wanted some company, even if it meant Ichigo. He wasn't so bad after all.

"Yeah. I'll eat anything really." Ichigo said bye to both of his sisters and they set off. The stand that Uryu was trying to go to was about 20-25 blocks away. As they walked Ichigo made small talk about how his dad was goat like. Uryu just didn't see Isshin the way Ichigo saw him and let Ichigo keep on talking. He nodded and tried to look like he gave a shit about what Ichigo was talking on and on about. But it was harder than he made it look.

When they got there Uryu got a discount somehow. Maybe he was a repeat costumer or something, or the owner of the stand just really liked Uryu. It was probably the latter, because they talked for maybe fifteen minutes before Uryu finally left the owner to do whatever she did in between costumers. As they left, Uryu nibbled on the fish shaped pastry, and offered Ichigo one.

"Why do you eat so slowly?" Ichigo turned and noticed that his friend was less than a quarter through his, and he started after him. He was nearly finished his and he didn't even like tayaki.

"I figured that if I ate slowly I'd lose weight." He nibbled a bit again.

"Well you don't need to lose weight anymore. In fact if I was you I'd be trying to gain weight." Ichigo felt like shoving the entire thing down his throat at one time.

"Okay. But when I had to work I tried to lose weight to get more customers. And then I ate slow so I felt full." Uryu took a bit of a bigger bite.

"You don't have to worry about that kind of thing anymore." Ichigo took a bite out of his. "This one is good. It kind of tastes like something Orihime would make. Maybe because of the red bean paste."

"Who is Orihime?" Uryu asked.

"A good friend of mine. She's nice you should meet her. We were all planning on having a big get together this weekend and you are going to come to meet my friends." They were going to meet at his place and eat the bread that Orihime brings every week. Often she brought too much for them to eat and they would have to eat it later at school.

"That sounds great and all, do you have a girlfriend?" Uryu had been wondering this for a long period of time. Ichigo seemed like he'd attract girls like fleas. He had a good looking face and neck, not to mention he's ripped. If he did have a girlfriend she must be really be faithful, because Ichigo hadn't invited her over in over a week now.

"Nope." Short answer. A little too short for Uryu's liking. Was he lying?

"Are you sure?" Uryu asked.

"Yeah I'm sure. I wouldn't lie about something stupid like that so calm down." Ichigo walked a little faster. He didn't really want to answer Uryu's questions. He didn't like girls. And he definitely didn't like Orihime. She was alright, she had a nice face and a nice body but, as mentioned before Ichigo didn't like girls. Of course Uryu didn't have to know this and he wasn't going to tell him so it wouldn't matter.

"Well then you should get one before they're all taken."

"No thanks." Ichigo replied curtly.

"Why not?" Uryu hounded him. He wanted an answer. A valid one.

"Because I don't like women." Ichigo covered his mouth a bit. Shit.

"Hm? So who do you like?"

"I don't like women because they are bitchy. They always want you to tell you everything. And they always do their hair up so you can't run your fingers through them." He was right about the last part. He liked Uryu because he could run his fingers through it all day without worrying about ruining his hair. Uryu's hair fell perfectly anyways. And it smelt good.

"I see. But who do you like? Like, what's your deal?" Uryu kept pace with Ichigo, his hair flowing with the wind.

"Why do you care?" Ichigo walked even faster now, to no avail, Uryu's long legs easily carrying him along with Ichigo.

"Well I'm just curious."

"Who are you interested in?" Ichigo looked down at Uryu and finally noticed he was subconsciously walking really fast, and he was really tiring himself out.

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because you can trust me, and I won't tell anyone about it. Who do you like?" He was seriously starting to get annoying now. And since when did Ichigo trust him?

"I can't tell you. I'd just be embarrassing myself and my hair is bad enough. So just shut up and walk okay?" Ichigo slowed his pace a bit, to Uryu's appreciation.

They walked some more in complete silence. It was like that wall that was between them when they first met and Uryu didn't like it. He sometimes dared himself to talk, but when drew breath to speak his head told him not to automatically. Instinct sucks. When they reached the door both of them decided without thinking to walk upstairs. Ichigo reached the door first and slammed it in Uryu's face, then locking it. Uryu sat down outside the door, thinking about what he might've said to offend Ichigo. Ichigo made it seem like having a girlfriend was a bad thing. Why was he being so secretive? They were fine this morning. What happened?

Karin exited her bedroom, to see Uryu sitting on the ground and staring at the floor. It almost looked like he was meditating and he didn't want to be disturbed. Still, she waved her hand in front of Ishida's face. "Hello? Anyone there?"

"Yeah?" Uryu looked up at her.

"What 'cha doin'?" She sounded like that annoying girl off of Phineas and Ferb.

"Wellll… as you can see I'm not in Ichigo's bedroom. He locked me out and now all I have to do is just sit out here and wait for him to come out again." Uryu sighed.

"That may be a while. Do you like Ichigo?" Karin held out a hand and helped Uryu up. It was then that she realized that Uryu could really use some more food. He was light as a feather.

"Meh. He seems alright. But sometimes he kicks me around and that really makes me mad. If he pushes too hard then I'll push back I guess." Karin led him down the hall to the stairs. "Maybe he'll be more social when he's done whatever he's doing."

"He really enjoys his alone time. But now I think he's just pouting. To be honest he wasn't particularly happy when you came, but he'll come around eventually." Karin ran down the stairs pretty fast. She can be very agile at times, and that definitely helped her in soccer. Uryu followed her, a bit slower in pace but he still was only two steps behind her. He was still a bit scared of stairs after watching Ichigo wipe out a few times. But that was Ichigo and he could trip on a ladybug, so he wasn't as freaked out. Stairs were a bit of a new concept for him though.

She told him to sit on the couch, and as obedient as ever Uryu sat down without an argument. Karin flicked on the television and watched the news. Why was he sitting here? He wanted to get to know this girl better, and now all he had figured out was that she liked the news and T.V. He also knew that Ichigo had stopped hiding out in his room and was now running down them. He swung around the railing ninja style and flopped on the couch between Karin and Uryu. Right now the news lady was discussing "explosions" that Ichigo knew were hollows, and tried to act natural, despite the fact that he was worried that somebody might get hurt. Right now he had the spiritual power of a normal person and couldn't even detect an average plus.

"What's up?" he asked innocently.

"I dunno… sittin' here watching the news I guess." Uryu turned his attention to the guy who had sat beside him. "What're you doing?"

"I got bored."

"Why'd you lock me out? Am I really that bad of company?" Uryu asked.

"I don't like people being with me when I go online. It just gives me the creeps when I'm chatting with my friends and there is someone breathing over my shoulder. I don't know if you're that type of person, I guess I should've let you in and told you." Ichigo looked away.

"Okay. Well I don't exactly care what you and your friends are talking about so don't worry." Uryu looked back at the television. He was kind of interested of what Ichigo's friends were like, but only in person. Everyone acts different when one can't see what the other is doing.

"Fine." It was around five o' clock. The evening news hour was almost over so Karin got up to get a glass of water. She didn't seem so bad to Uryu, she was quiet and kept to herself like Uryu. Also, she had a strong disposition but knew her place. It seemed like she was a negative of Yuzu. She was still alright though.

The two guys stayed on the couch for a while longer, Ichigo wanted to see some of the movies that were coming on after. Uryu got up to go to the bathroom, and while he was there Ichigo talked to Karin and Yuzu. He told them about how he was trying to get Uryu to eat more, so when they had snacks they should offer some to him. Even if it didn't work he'd pay them back for their efforts. When Uryu exited the bathroom he warned them with a short, curt "Don't go in there." He noticed they were all very close together, and asked "What were you guys talking about?"

"We were uh- p-planning a surprise for uh- dad. Yeah we were planning a surprise… heh." Smooth Yuzu. Real smooth…

Uryu looked at them funny and walked back into the kitchen for some water. He had no idea what was going on and decided that they'd think he was being weird if he asked to be in on their little plan. Not that he cared what they thought. –Ish.

Yuzu walked in with Karin and they both sat on the counter, looking at Uryu intently.

"Hello?" Uryu backed up a bit. They could be rather scary just sitting there.

"Do you know about brother?" Yuzu asked first.

"Well I've been living with him for the past few days… I'd say I know him better than the average guy…" Uryu replied carefully.

"Did he tell you?" Karin asked this time.

"Um… he told me a few things. His favourite color, dumb stuff like that, he talks in his sleep a lot…" Uryu rattled off a few more, earning a facepalm from Karin.

"Did brother tell you he was gay?" Yuzu said as fast as she could.

"Uh… no?" Uryu was super naïve, and couldn't tell from all the signs he was getting that Ichigo was, in fact, homo. It wasn't very surprising, considering we're talking about Uryu here. But still it was very obvious.

"Well he's been putting it off quite a while then. He told me he'd tell you this week and it's Friday." (, Friday gotta get down on Friday, partyin' partyin' YEAH!) said Karin. *A.N. I just had to.*

"Hm. I have been meaning to tell you all the same thing. I am gay too." Uryu said with a proud undertone in his voice, meanwhile Yuzu, who had a total crush on Uryu, was a bit devastated. Karin looked un-moved and Ichigo poked his head around the corner, with some toast crumbs falling out of his mouth.

"Um Dad doesn't know about Ichigo yet, so I'd recommend this stays between the four of this." Yuzu pinky swore to Uryu that she'd sworn to secrecy, and Karin did the same. A few weeks ago a very similar event happened between Ichigo and his sisters. But that time he was a bit tweaked from the sleeping pills he had taken earlier.

"Okay. I'm glad to have gotten that off of my chest. How about we eat something?" Uryu eyed the vegetable crackers that Karin was munching on with a glint of longing in his eye. She soon noticed this and told the boy to grab a bowl. Obediently, he grabbed a small black bowl that normally donned some noodles, and Karin filled it up. Uryu sat down beside Ichigo and made small talk about the explosions. Ichigo was a good actor, and pretended to believe that they were like the general population that had no clue about hollows. Ichigo had no clue that Uryu was spiritually aware, let alone an active Quincy that snuck out at night to battle evil creatures. Uryu preferred it to stay that way and so it did.

Karin winked at Ichigo when she saw him notice the bowl of crackers that Uryu was nibbling on. They were practically all carbs and Uryu didn't really do much. Ichigo thought that this might prove to be a bit easier than he thought initially.


	4. Chapter 4

_**This one seems really weird. There isn't very much dialogue, and it's starting to resemble how I used to write. I'd say I'm getting a bit better at writing now, I still suck a bit though! :P I wonder where the plot will go from here… I took quite a long break for a while- HAVE NO FEAR I'M NOT DEAD! Thx Quyme for that lovely little offer to translate. The whole Google Translate thing really screwed me over for translation- it didn't translate when I turned it into a word document. -**_

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Today Uryu would have a social life whether he liked it or not. Ichigo made him sit with himself, Orihime, Chad, Keigo, Mizuiro, Rukia, Renji and Tatsuki. He really didn't want to be there because Renji was eyeing him rather awkwardly and Keigo was telling these nowhere stories about fireworks and baseball. Uryu just nodded and mindlessly doodled on his page. He was drawing a cartoon-ish dog and cat. It was turning out okay but Uryu didn't like it too much so he threw it in the trash. All the others were listening; clearly interested in whatever he had to say. Uryu hadn't spoken since he introduced himself to all of the others. Right now he was sitting between Orihime and Tatsuki. He thought that the two girls were really cool for some reason, and Orihime was watching tentatively as Uryu started sketching out a simple flower pattern all over the page. That was what he did when he was bored and could find paper. It was rather comforting, and maybe even a bit aesthetic.

When he was finished he was considering going upstairs and hiding out there for the rest of the visit. He wasn't very good at conversations, and they had yet to ask him where he was from, too concentrated on what Keigo had to say. He honestly would hate having to explain what he did and where he lived. But when the question finally came up he didn't bother answering and went upstairs ignoring whatever they were saying. Uryu didn't want to explain himself to anyone else; besides those he was close to. He wasn't closely followed, thanks to Ichigo telling them not to bother with him for a while.

Uryu entered Ichigo's room and lied down on the bed. _'This is the reason I don't bother with people!'_ he thought, collapsing in a heap of sobs. He was happy that Ichigo had friends, but he was different in a lot of ways and didn't want others to know about his rather shameful past. He wished he could throw that all away and start anew. That was exactly what he was doing for a while until people brought it up again. He was pretty sure Rukia was decent enough to understand, and Orihime seemed alright, but the guys would probably run off screaming 'Ew! Homo!" Except for Chad. Chad was alright. As these thoughts whirred through his mind, he cried on the bed. But Chad's ears had picked this up as he exited the bathroom, tiny sobs in his range of hearing. They actually sounded a bit girlish; he thought it would have been either one of Ichigo's female companions, or his little sisters.

As he opened the door, he saw none other than the mysterious little guy that Ichigo had recently gotten them to know. Uryu didn't even notice his presence until he felt the huge hand on his shoulder. He looked up at the Mexican-Japanese man, whose eyes were strangely comforting as of now. Uryu could only imagine how bad he looked, in fact he had just had an ugly cry where snot and other bodily fluids leaked from every hole in your face, (yes even his mouth). But he didn't really look as retched as imagined, except for his cheeks were very flushed, a bit of snot was plugging his sinuses and his eyes were pretty tired looking. Chad looked at him for a while; Uryu was avoiding his gaze until he calmed down and regained his composure. When his cheeks were less red and his eyes stopped leaking the boy looked up at the man, who was now hugging him.

"What's wrong?" Chad spoke with his deep voice. It was even more comforting than the relaxed look that he gave Uryu earlier.

"Well I'm not particularly proud of my past. I try to forget it but I just can't; everyone keeps asking me about it and I don't want to answer." Uryu sniffled and pulled his knees up to his chest.

"I don't like what I did in the past either. It happened so long ago, and I'm still a bit haunted by it. But you can't really forget about that type of thing, so what I do is just try to start over and don't let it affect what's going on now." Chad reassured Uryu. He got up. "I don't think that they'll ask again so could you please come downstairs again?" He pleaded.

"Okay I guess." Uryu got up and followed Chad down the stairs. He had rinsed his face with cold water and let the puffiness around his eyes die down; he looked almost normal now and was pretty happy about that. Now he'd have to face everyone confidently; trying to apply what Chad had told him earlier. It wasn't so hard, and nobody really brought up Uryu's past for the rest of the night.

"So what do you do for hobbies, Uryu-san?" Orihime asked.

"Hm. I really like doing crafts and making clothes. I also play some piano… um I don't really do much for sports…" He trailed off. He was well educated from the books he bought while on the streets, and learned how to play piano for the seven or so years he did live with his father. He didn't really pay attention to the lessons his father tried to give him, but he normally wound up playing a freestyle-ish collection of tunes he had buzzing around his head. His father liked listening to these while reading, and that was the only time he was actually proud of his son and what he did, aside from his remarkable grades.

But when he was walking home he was often taken "advantage" of by the boys in the higher grade. They were much larger than him and made him do things that seriously hurt his pride. This was one of the major factors of what made him gay. He didn't exactly hate the fact that he was gay; but it was a lot easier being straight than being a homo.

Now he was sitting beside Chad; who he soon became very close friends with and Ichigo. It seemed like things would be better, he now had a bit of a social life (a very small one, but still a social life), and someone he thought he could really trust. Uryu still wasn't exactly comfortable with Ichigo's family to go in the fridge, so he timidly suggested that Ichigo and he could make something to eat for everyone. But Renji, who seemed a lot closer to Ichigo than everyone else had beat him to it. He brought out some of the taiyaki that Uryu bought yesterday and everyone ate. Renji wasn't a huge fan of it, and offered the rest to Uryu who ate it happily. Ichigo now knew Uryu's weakness, (taiyaki) and decided that he'd make him eat some every day. Now Keigo was talking about how he went out for sushi and how he saw his favourite band in front of him in line. Uryu decided to listen because he had nothing else to do, and everyone else was listening. They were a bit afraid to admit it but sometimes Keigo's little adventures made for a great story to listen to while eating.

Uryu went to the bathroom to check himself. He felt himself gaining weight again. It seemed like his body changed every day and it was bugging him. Although it was a bit interesting, he couldn't stand how small and weak he was. He used to have a toned body, with muscles and everything. But after living on the streets for a few years it was hard to find anything to eat, soon his body started eating away at the muscles on his body and that made him feel so small and helpless. But now he saw that the top rib on his chest wasn't as notable, and concluded that he should start working out again; seeing as he had a constant supply of food and had the nutrients to develop his skinny form a bit.

He went downstairs to see how everyone else was doing. He had apparently missed out on the joke that Keigo had told, and now everyone there was laughing their arses off. He sighed and continued down the stairs, filling the gap between Ichigo and Chad. He had actually sat on Ichigo's hand; who immediately drew it back, but the button had hurt his hand a bit.

"Sorry Ichigo…" Uryu looked at the throbbing ring finger.

"It's fine." Ichigo looked at it, returning it to his lap. Uryu continued watching Keigo doing a bit of a dramatization. It wasn't very interesting… To avoid listening to the sound of Keigo going on and on about his favourite band, Uryu got up and got a glass of water. It was then that Ichigo realized what a nice butt Uryu had. It looked and as just felt, it was soft but had a good shape to it. Also, his skinny jeans weren't exactly hiding it. In fact Ichigo felt his eyes stray immediately to it until Renji noticed. He punched him in the shoulder and told him that somebody might notice him. After that Ichigo regained his self control and realized what a dirty bastard he was being; also if Uryu noticed it might creep him out a bit. That was likely the last thing that the newbie needed as of now; Ichigo thought that if guys were hitting on him then maybe he'd be reminded of what he was trying really hard to forget now. Ichigo let those thoughts invade his mind; how would he feel if he was subjected to that kind of crap. He'd fight back probably, but Uryu couldn't, Ichigo knew that if he could've he would have given it his all and beat the crap out of them. The skinny guy was deceivably strong and fast, why didn't he? He probably would never really understand the quiet boy, and had long since come to terms with that. Right now he could tell that he was just trying to get through life, but they all knew that life was something nobody came out of alive; so going out fighting seemed like the best thing to do.

Uryu came back and sat down again, this time he was more careful about where he sat and was now being a bit squished by Chad and Ichigo, who were sitting pretty close to each other to begin with. Renji and Orihime didn't notice this and they didn't let Chad or Ichigo move either so Uryu was pretty much stuck there. But he wasn't complaining because he didn't get cold at all for the next few stories. All he needed now was some popcorn because he was now seeing why everyone liked Keigo's stories, they never really ended until someone told him to tell a different one, and they were also pretty funny. When Keigo was alone he was a socially awkward person who did things that were totally retarded. This amused Uryu greatly, and everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves as Keigo preached on.

When Keigo finally ran out of material, Uryu told everyone a bit about himself. He told them about his likes, dislikes, hobbies etc, etc. He didn't spill everything though, and left people wondering a few things about him. Uryu hated when people didn't leave a few things about themselves out, and figured if he didn't tell them all of his personality, that it might make conversation later. Orihime had brought some bread leftover from the bakery that she worked in, and they nibbled on that for a while until it was all gone, Ichigo was happy that Uryu seemed to have developed quite an appetite. Nobody else seemed to interfere with Uryu, as they noticed that Uryu had hardly any weight to him.

Orihime seriously wondered what Uryu was really like, because she never really talked to him, and decided she'd save the conversation for the next time they saw each other, because he was still just settling in here. As she finished off her slice of bread Tatsuki started talking about her karate championships that were coming up soon. Ichigo said he'd be there to cheer her on, and that Uryu would have to come along with him. The boy wasn't really anticipating this, because he simply didn't like people in general. They were loud, and violent. If he could live in a mountain with a few people who were quiet then maybe he'd be better off, but he enjoyed it in crowded Japan, where there were more people, living in dense populations.

Soon Mizuiro proposed that they'd go outside and walk around, and everyone pretty much instantly agreed to this. They needed to get out and walk around like normal teenagers; and Mizuiro knew a good place for takeout. They walked to the place, groups of two or three having separate conversations. Ichigo was talking to Uryu about how he'd be going back to school at the end of the summer, Chad was talking to Tatsuki and Orihime; telling them about the Mexican legend of Quetzocaulus and how the sun was created. I have no idea of what Keigo and Mizuiro were talking about, but it seemed interesting because Keigo was doing some wild hand gestures and Mizuiro was laughing a bit at the loud noise that Keigo was making. When they got there Ichigo immediately ordered Uryu some ramen, and some other carbohydrates, and just ordered ramen, while everyone else did the same.

When the meals came Uryu stared at his plate. He was beginning to notice a pattern here: When they ate, Ichigo almost always gave him something really big with a lot of carbs in them. He was trying to gain weight himself, but Ichigo should have told him. He knew that he was really underweight and wanted to fix it; it was the polar opposite when Uryu had a bunch of people buying him. But he could see right through Ichigo's sheepish smile.

"Ichigo, if you're trying to get me to gain weight than why didn't you tell me?" Everyone turned to Ichigo; who was now blushing a bit. They too had noticed Ichigo giving Uryu more food than it looked like the small guy could handle.

"Well you are really underweight. And I'd say if Ichigo was trying to help you then don't get mad at him," spoke Renji, more to himself than anyone else.

"heh… Yeah I guess I should have told you, but if you don't wanna gain weight then I guess that's your choice and not mine, neh?" Ichigo replied sheepishly.

"Well yeah I don't mind you trying to help and all but I should be fine on my own." Uryu looked back at Ichigo. He did appreciate Ichigo's efforts but this was getting a bit excessive. He was going to start working out again as soon as possible; that meant that he'd gain his weight in muscle, and not fat.

They resumed eating in awkward silence, Uryu offered Chad most of the bread that was in front of him, and they all put in some cash to pay. Ichigo was forced to put in a bit extra because of the unwanted food he had gotten; and Uryu helped a bit by putting in some more than initially expected as well.

The group exited the shop, and resumed their conversations. Ichigo described the school to Uryu in great detail; Uryu listening intently as he got more and more excited. He often interrupted and asked about little things like textbooks, and how the bathrooms were.

They were now one week into the summer, as Ichigo just realized. His head hurt at the thought of having Uryu with him for the rest of his school life, maybe even the rest of his education. Uryu had told him he was planning on being a doctor, and how he was excited about finishing school. He had whizzed by the classes he was able to attend, while he lived with his father and the voluntary education at the orphanage he stayed at for such a short period of time. Also, he knew a lot from the textbooks he read and had to be a year ahead in math.

Thinking about the textbooks, it reminded him about his father. It was about eight years since he ran away. His grandfather had died the day before, and he had nothing to lose. He wanted to see his grave again, and knew exactly where to go to see him again. He asked Ichigo if they could go to the park near the grave yard.

"Yeah sure. Why the graveyard, though?" He wondered.

"I wanna see my grandfather." Uryu added with pleading eyes. Ichigo swore he could have seen Uryu's eyes water a bit, this told him to listen to him.

"I see. The one by the river?" Ichigo pointed to the direction where the river was. It had quite a sentimental value to him, that was where his mother died, and he visited that place at least once a week. He saw her the day before Uryu came to live with them, along with Yuzu and Karin. Yuzu was slightly successful at not crying, along with Karin who pledged to never cry. Ichigo sat there talking quietly to her, even though he knew that not even her soul still existed. It had rained that day too; in fact it was raining a lot these days.

"Yeah that one."

"That's where my mom was buried. She died there too." Ichigo looked at Uryu with a solemn look in his eye. He liked visiting his mom; she was a good listener and didn't interrupt. (ahem- Uryu could learn a lesson or two from her)

Ichigo told the rest of them to come and hang out at the park. There weren't any kids there and all they did was sit on the playground and chat about things. Ichigo and Uryu slipped off to see Soken Ishida's grave. It looked like Uryu had left some of the daffodils he picked from the little meadow were placed there a while ago. He ran off to the very same place where he got them and replaced them. He tied them with a blue ribbon he had in his pocket and laid them gently on in front of the gravestone. Ichigo gave him some privacy to talk to the dearly departed grandfather. Ichigo didn't know how strong the two's bond was, because Uryu hadn't told him about the whole "Quincy" thing that he did in his spare time.

It was almost dark out; a fiery sunset was going down on the land of the rising sun. Ichigo yawned and sat down on the damp grass, in front of where his mother was laid to rest. The birds were singing their evening song before going to sleep. He started talking to her, about how Uryu was now living with them, Uryu's past and how he was doing in school. Ichigo thought that that might've been the most boring conversation he had, but Masaki seemed pretty happy about it all. He could tell.

As he got up, he looked over to where Uryu was sitting. The boy was still sitting cross legged and with what Ichigo thought was terrible posture; his back was hunched and his head was stooped. He looked like a flower near the end of its life. Ishida looked at Ichigo, blushing a bit as he realized he had an audience. He looked quite content bowing his head, as if he could talk to his Grandfather through telepathy. He got up and walked towards Ichigo quietly with his back straight. He was happy with what he had said, and they both silently walked back to the park, Ichigo keeping a few paced behind Uryu. The truth was they both just told their relatives that they were gay, and it seemed like they didn't mind it so it was all fine.

When they got back to where everyone else was, they didn't bother asking where they went, to Ichigo's appreciation. Uryu sat down beside Chad and both of them didn't talk at all. They were happy just sitting there watching Keigo and Mizuiro fart around. It was quite amusing watching them run around, aside from when they actually got hurt and Uryu felt guilty for laughing at their stupidity. This caused them to exit the park, for fear that Keigo might get even more brain damage. So they started walking around some more. They passed a few places where Uryu had "worked", causing him to blush. He was definitely a dirty bastard, and he was starting to come to terms with that. He was going to try to follow what Chad had said and move on.

"What's up?" Ichigo asked Uryu, who hadn't talked in the past half hour. He was definitely quiet around people; but to this extent? It was seriously bugging Ichigo. He tried and tried to strike up a talk with him, but kept getting one word answers or "I don't know" for a reply. It seemed like he didn't really want to be there but he stayed for some reason. "Uryu do you want to go home?" Ichigo finally asked. He seemed so quiet and solemn.

"No… It's just that this part of town brings back really bad memories." Ichigo blushed and realized what Uryu meant. They were at the front of the group, so Ichigo turned and everyone else subconsciously followed them, keeping up their own separate conversations. When they had finally gotten out of that place Uryu talked a little more, about the few movies he had seen when he had extra money to go to a theatre. He liked them, and didn't mind bringing a few of the people he met through jobs or something. He used to have a boss, sometimes he'd take him along, and the brothel that he worked at for a short amount of time gave him lots of work. Work meant money, money meant food. Ishida thought about the path that he was going down before the Kurosakis took him in. What if it had gotten worse?

Uryu hated to admit it, but it was a good thing that Ichigo was around. He didn't mind him as much as he used to, almost to the point of liking him. He hoped he wouldn't screw this up, and decided that he'd have to try not to screw this up. He admitted that he thought Ichigo was pretty cute; and if he lost Ichigo he'd probably not be able to see Renji and Chad anymore. He really thought that Chad was cool and could turn out to be a good friend, and that Renji was really hot if he got past the fact that he hit on him constantly.

Ishida let these thoughts whirl through his head; he hardly noticed that they were at Ichigo's house. Ichigo entered and told the rest of them to be quiet. Keigo, Mizuiro, Orihime and Rukia had to go home, but Chad stayed because he didn't have anything better to do.

Ichigo led the taller man in, and got something for the three of them to eat, which was more than appreciated from Chad, who hardly ate anything at the take out spot that they were eating at. Then he busted out some pop and they all talked about things that they did in their spare time. It was in this conversation that Uryu found out that Chad was the one who taught Ichigo how to play the guitar. The three of them sat down on the couch, Uryu fell asleep with on Ichigo's lap, his long legs strewn across the entire seat. He had been a bit tired even before they left. He cuddled into Ichigo's chest and smiled. He was snoring lightly, and as of now had a cute innocent disposition about him. Ichigo liked seeing him like this. It was cute and funny.

He drifted off into a deep sleep, and about an hour later he felt himself being carried up onto Ichigo's room. He yawned and opened his eyes, blushing a bit. "Ichigo?"

"Yeah?" Ichigo smelt a tinge of alcohol in his breath. Chad and he had brought out some of booze his father had never really bothered with. Ichigo knew that he wouldn't notice, and they had a good time. Uryu had no idea why they did but he was happy that Ichigo was happy. He had never gotten drunk before, and was kind of curious; he wondered if Ichigo had left any of what they were drinking.

"Did you have any left?" Uryu asked timidly. "Did Chad go home?"

"You mean this?" Ichigo held up a jug of sake. It had to be at least a quarter full.

"Yeah…" Uryu blushed. "Could I have some?"

"Sure." Ichigo handed him the oddly shaped jug. Uryu drank some; it tasted funny and had that odd foreign tinge to it. He took another, much larger sip of it before coughing a bit. He wasn't a huge fan, but in a few minutes it started to work. He felt warm, in an altered state of mind. After a few more gulps of it, it didn't seem too bad and he started to feel "Different". He decided that he'd had enough and tried to sleep, but Ichigo kept him up, and they talked a bit more. Apparently Uryu was a better talker when he was tweaked a bit. Then Ichigo suggested that they played truth or dare.

"Truth or dare?" Ichigo asked him. They were sitting cross legged on the bed facing each other. Uryu gave it some thought. He had picked truth at least 2 times in a row, not that he was keeping track. So he picked dare for once. "hm. I dunno… I dare you to sit in my lap."

Uryu, who was in his drunk state of mind decided to do it; he didn't have much to lose anyways. He sat down and squirmed a little, getting comfortable. Ichigo never really answered the question about Chad, who was a total lightweight, had passed out on the couch. The whole game went a little bit crazy, and it ended in the two doing it, not even on a dare. Ichigo had wanted him for a while, and Uryu was a bit horny from the large concentration of alcohol he had consumed through the short passage of time that Ichigo visited him. Ichigo was as gentle as he could be, and tried not to hurt him. Meanwhile, Uryu had been a bit of a masochist and gave Ichigo little hickies and bruises all over.

When they woke up, Uryu found himself less than mobile. He couldn't really move because his lower back hurt like a bitch, and Ichigo was in the shower. But thanks to the fact that Chad had spent the night he had some company. Apparently, Chad heard them and couldn't sleep very well. Uryu apologized about that, and realized that Chad now knew that Uryu was gay. He seemed pretty cool about it; he didn't seem grossed out about it at all but he acted different around him slightly.

"Did you know that Ichigo was gay?" Uryu asked quietly. He had wondered if he had given away some big secret, what if that would kill his social life completely.

"Yeah, He told me a long time ago actually." Chad replied. It was true; Ichigo had told them before they had gone into the Seireitei. He was good at keeping secrets. Ichigo was also almost positive that Chad would accept him anyways; he was quite possibly the most understanding person Ichigo knew. He was pretty sure he was straight himself though.

Uryu tried to move again, albeit the difficulty he found it easier to sit up if his back was straight. His body was covered in the blue sheets that Ichigo had on his bed. The entire upper side of his back had a bunch of scratch marks from Ichigo, and his hair was a bit of a mess. Also he had that uncomfortable sensation of the white sticky fluid Ichigo had put in him the previous night running out of his ass. He shifted and yawned. They waited for the orange haired boy to return so Uryu could take a shower; when he did he grabbed Uryu a towel. Ichigo found it a bit hard to look Uryu in the eye now, he looked like an angel this morning; his eyes were like sapphires and his hair looked really shiny, like god had sent him down to earth to torment and love Ichigo at the same time.

Uryu seemed to be teaching Ichigo a life lesson of acceptance. He was different than anyone Ichigo ever knew before, and he was so complex. Ichigo felt really guilty about how he kicked him around and beat him up. It was a mystery as to why Ichigo had turned around so quickly. Maybe he had realized that Uryu had never had a real family, and if he saw how Ichigo had beaten him up he wouldn't want a family. That would have been a really sad thing for him to have caused. He knew that if his mother had found out she wouldn't have liked it at all. That was another likely factor. Either way he had recently lost his virginity and was happy about that, even if it was another guy. He wondered about how Uryu would act around him. Ichigo could no longer think about him as a brother, maybe just a really close friend.

Lover?

Maybe…


	5. IM BAACK

**IM SHO SHORRY! I abandoned this for a while… My report card sucked ass because I wasn't getting my assignments in on time. So now I'm actually doing them and that gives me no time to update. **

Ishida straightened out at the sight of Ichigo; he seemed exhausted from last night. But he couldn't have had it as bad as Uryu; the smaller guy really took some damage last night and didn't really have much motivation to move right now and his back was keeping him from mobilizing at all.

"Hello Ichigo." Uryu yawned. Last night really took him out and long sentences didn't seem so important to him as of now.

"Hi." Ichigo sat down; the towel he was using left little to the imagination and his boner wasn't really helping. Uryu wished he could get up and put some pants on but not when Chad was there.

Ichigo cupped his hand on his abdomen; it was pretty sore from the "workout" he gave them last night; along with bruises and hickies that Ishida had given him a rather beaten appearance. Uryu blushed a bit at the sight of Ichigo; had he really done that much to such a strong guy like Ichigo?

"Well then… Maybe I should go?" Chad asked, breaking the awkward silence; normally he was the one who created those types of moments. He was very perceptive and probably knew what those two were going to talk about now and said goodbye.

"Bye Chad!" Ichigo waved him off enthusiastically, he felt kind of bad for Chad's departure. He wanted to hang out some more but he knew what was important and Uryu was at the top of his list as of now.

"Bye." Uryu smiled a bit. He liked that guy, (as a friend of course,). Ichigo had caught that smile and thought about it. He hadn't seen Uryu smile nicely like that in, well, forever. Normally it was cheesy smiles he made at Renji or his sisters, but that was a warm little grin that made Ichigo want to smile himself. But he didn't for fear that Uryu would notice and ask him why he was smiling while looking at his face.

"Well… do you wanna get dressed? I um- I washed your jeans for you; they were covered in- uh you know; now I think they're in the dryer if Yuzu listened. But you can borrow some of mine if you'd like." Ichigo smiled sheepishly at Uryu. They had some pre-cum on them from last night so Ichigo stealthily ran to the washer and stuck them in with some of his clothes.

"Thanks Ichigo." Uryu sighed. He picked a pair of skinny jeans that were way too small for Ichigo and put them on; they were still a bit long and baggy but they'd have to do until his jeans were done. He decided to make new ones today and got started cutting up a pair of jeans that Ichigo didn't like. They were like those ones that got wider at the knee and Ichigo didn't really like that. But Uryu incorporated that into the new; much smaller version. He decided to take a break and have some breakfast.

"Uryu?"

"Yeah?"

"We kind of need to talk." Ichigo suggested quietly.

"Why?"

"Well, you know how we did it?" Ichigo spoke rather softly. He didn't know how Uryu would react to him.

"Yeah…" Uryu sighed.

"What are we gonna do about it?" Ichigo was worried that if his dad found out that he'd like, disown him or some other horrible thing like that. He was pretty sure that his dad would accept him any way, but this seemed pretty huge. He hadn't told his dad yet, and he had no clue that Uryu was gay.

"Well I don't see the point in making a big deal about all of this." Uryu yawned.

"Well I'm sorry but I can't exactly run off and go to another alley." Ichigo muttered. It was true; Uryu didn't have to face the people he worked for after they were done so it made sense.

"Are you suggesting I worked in alleys?" Uryu glared at Ichigo. He had a bit more self respect than that. But only a little.

"Yeah a bit. Anyways there's no shame in that. Aside from the fact that giving blow jobs in public is illegal." Ichigo mocked. He knew Uryu had a bit of an opening from that and he wasn't above exploiting it a bit.

"Oh shut up." Uryu felt like punching him in the face a bit but it seemed a little drastic for a few simple insults. He wasn't worth it anyways. "Either way I'm stuck here with you now so try not to make me fuck you up."

"Oh? So now you're gonna be on top. That's pretty brave Ishida." Ichigo said tauntingly. He didn't exactly get what Uryu meant by "Fuck you up" but still it seemed like a good comeback.

"Last time I checked I didn't say yes to you so shut up." Uryu was right, Ichigo had taken his pants off long before he got any consent from Ishida, but after that it went pretty smoothly aside from Uryu's pants.

"Why'd you let me?"

"Because you weigh a lot more than me, and don't let the fact that I was hammered get past you." Ishida muttered. "I don't even think I came so you're probably really proud of yourself now." Uryu smiled. "You really sucked though, just to let you know."

"Really? Well I guess I'm not a pro like you then." Ichigo glared. "That was my first time you know."

"Well in that case get some practice." Uryu muttered to himself. He had to get off himself that night, Ichigo had fallen asleep right after he pulled out. That kid is going to have a horrible sex life if he kept that up.

"Hm? Why would I need to practice? For you? I don't think so." Ichigo snarled. He knew that maybe if he tried hard enough that he could hit a little close to home. It might sound a bit psychotic but if he lost this argument he might never get to do it with Uryu again. Uryu was really good at sex from his experience and personally; Ichigo thought that Uryu was the smexiest thing ever. *smexy is a word now*

"Well if you plan on doing it with anyone you have to help them get off either way. It's a rule I promise."

"Wait- y-you were on top once?" Ichigo stuttered. He thought Uryu was a hooker and typically, guy hookers were bottom sluts (and in his rather mean opinion) with no real pride in their bodies.

"Well I had a boyfriend at the orphanage for some length of time before he found a family. He was really cute and it wasn't a surprise that he found someone but jeez it really sucked. But yeah. He made me be bottom almost all the time but once he let me on top and I didn't do so good."

Ichigo chucked at Uryu's sudden loss of grammar and smiled. "I dunno. If you don't wanna make a big deal out of this then that's cool too, but you are _really _cute. Just lettin' you know."

Uryu blushed. "Thanks… Ichigo; if you wanted to make something of it then that's cool too. But I don't know if I can trust anyone anymore. I hope you can understand all this but I can't. Don't take it personally." Uryu felt bad. But if Ichigo did want him he'd have to wait or find someone new.

Ichigo sighed. "Well I tried and can say I did. I understand…" He looked at his feet and sighed; it was still only 9? Hm. They could have breakfast now.

When they got downstairs they were both greeted by Yuzu. She had made them a big breakfast with bacon, eggs, pancakes and fruit. They sat down and ate, having a conversation about food again. Uryu seemed really tired though, yet he participated with the conversation and ate more than usual. Then he had helped Yuzu with the dishes that they had made and then sat down on the couch with Ichigo; they were watching some T.V. show that Uryu had never heard of. In fact he had hardly ever seen T.V. before he came there; most of the time when he was living with his dad he had no interest in what was going on in the world (too busy training to be a Quincy) and at the orphanage they only had one T.V. (the fat kid always bullied the others out of the remote). Now he didn't really care, and just sat there with Ichigo, trying his best to figure out what was going on, ultimately failing miserably. He fell asleep a few minutes later, trying to connect some of the dots from last night.

He had figured that Ichigo and he did it missionary, that he didn't cum once, that Ichigo had a really big dick, and his ass wasn't ready. Also, he could tell right now that he had been stretched a bit. But still, he was really tempted by just seeing that big cock in his mind.

"Uryu?" Ichigo had heard a cute little moan escape the smaller boy's lips, making him a bit hard himself. Unfortunately for Ichigo, Uryu had shook himself awake. He blushed and realized what he had been doing, and the bright pink that Ichigo's cheeks and ears had become confirmed it.

"Yeah?" Playin' it cool…

"What was that?" Ichigo asked.

"Do you wanna go upstairs again?" Ichigo asked. He could tell that Uryu wasn't exactly compelled by Naruto and Sasuke duking it out so he had suggested that.

"Yeah sure." Uryu stood up and stretched. He didn't have to borrow a shirt from Ichigo, as he had his own. It was a button up collar shirt with a blue cross on the front pocket. Ishida seemed to like crosses. Besides the nice color and scheme, it was maybe a bit big on him. It seemed odd that he had a shirt that was too big on him, but when it came to pants, Uryu seemed to be wearing something too small for him.

They went upstairs to find Karin standing in front of their door.

"Hi?" Uryu asked. She was obviously standing there on purpose.

"What were you two thinking?" Karin said a bit loudly. She knew what they were doing last night.

"Whaddaya mean by that?" Ichigo was genuinely oblivious.

"I know what you two were up to last night. See you both have hickies on your necks." Karin shoved them in front of the bathroom mirror. They both blushed and realized that they did have some bite marks on their necks. Ichigo's was barely noticeable, while Uryu's was dark and purplish. He soon realized that Yuzu probably thought that her brother turned him into a vampire or something. What about when Isshin came home? Would they have faded by then? Well Ichigo's was barely there, it would fade in less than a day probably.

"When is your dad coming home?" Uryu turned around and asked Karin.

"In a few days probably. They'll probably be gone or faded considerably by then. If not I guess you're screwed." Karin looked at her nails.

"Actually I have just the thing for this sort of problem." Uryu went back to Ichigo's room and returned with a small bottle. "Concealer. It's great for hickies, neh?"

"Where'd you get that?" Ichigo eyed the small bottle suspiciously.

"Well, I don't know much about sado-masochism but people used to leave bruises and scratches on my body. And I don't really like having those so when I stopped by the convenience store I got some. It works like a charm.

"Well I'm not particularly fond of makeup so I guess I'll pass." Ichigo was too manly for that.

"Suit yourself." Ishida started covering up his bite mark carefully. In a few minutes, it seemed like it was gone.

"Hm. Not bad." Ichigo looked at the now normal looking neck and then back at his. It wasn't so bad that he'd have to use something to cover it up, but it was pretty pink. He couldn't really see it against the backdrop of his darker skin so he left it alone.

Uryu returned to Ichigo's room and tried to sit down on the hard wooden chair but found he couldn't. He flinched at the blunt but very uncomfortable pain in his ass. He wasn't feeling too hot right now so he flopped on the bed lazily. Right now wasn't the time to worry about the hickey or how anyone else thought about him; now was his chill time.

Ichigo walked in, and immediately saw the cute sight of Ishida trying to sleep on his tummy, but then he couldn't breathe very well. Ichigo sat down beside him and ran his fingers through his hair. Today seemed to be going by so slow and it was driving him crazy, it all seemed so surreal.

Uryu rolled over by him and buried his face in Ichigo's legs; near his lap, his thighs acting like a pillow, although they were the farthest thing from being soft or billowy. Right now Ichigo felt like falling asleep too; the sight of Uryu sleeping like an angel was making him drowsy just looking at him. He felt his eyelids drooping, and subconsciously leaned backwards; falling into a deep, pleasant sleep.

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"Nii-San!" Yuzu opened Ichigo's door, to see her brother with Uryu's face in his lap. And although this looked mildly suggestive, she nudged her brother's shoulder and woke him up.

"Hi Yuzu…" Ichigo said incoherently. He was horrible at waking up.

Uryu perked up too, ignoring the fact that he had been practically burying his face in Ichigo's crotch. When he saw Yuzu he noticed that the concealer on his neck was almost gone. He tried to hide it as bast he could, but she of course noticed. The little girl wouldn't miss a thing on Ishida; she had paid close attention to him ever since Karin had explained what a hooker was and she didn't want to have him go through that again. Still it was kind of his choice…

"Hello Yuzu… what's up?" Uryu had noticed that she was looking at his neck, his bruised purple neck. He blushed and turned away.

"Uryu-chan?" Yuzu pulled on his chin, causing him to flinch a bit. "Uryu-chan what happened?"

"Don't worry about it; I got it before I came here."

"No you didn't." Yuzu stated; her tone very firm. It seemed like she was almost mad at him for a second there.

"Well I dunno- why are you asking me?" Uryu said quietly. He was horrible at lying and right now it's not really working for him right now; but it seemed to be working for Yuzu, who had figured out that whatever it was Uryu didn't want to tell her about it.

"Fine. But no more of it okay?" Yuzu exited the room quietly; she had forgotten whatever she was going to tell them anyways; she'd remember later.

"What was that all about?" Ichigo stated it more than asked. He wasn't in the mood for bullshit and his head hurt. Uryu didn't reply; he knew that was a rhetorical question. He sat there and ran his hand through his hair.

"Well that nap was nice anyways; neh? I'd say I haven't slept better in my life." He was right. When he lived at his father's place, he had always known that he'd come home drunk and probably yell at mom; and when he was at the orphanage he had always been woken up by someone trying to use him. Here he had nothing much to worry about and he had some money if he needed to live on the streets again for any reason. A purely hypothetical situation, but still.

Ishida stood up and checked the time. It was half past three; they were out for a long time then. He was normally a very light sleeper, taking short naps throughout the day but that proved to be very unpractical and it bothered others. So that's why Ichigo and he started to sleep together. They kept each other at rest and happiness.

Uryu wondered if Ichigo was actually interested in him; or if the red head was just hammered and really horny or something like that. The latter seemed more likely because Ichigo seemed so interested in Mizuiro; and he could definitely do better than a former hooker/pole dancer. That would be pretty weird seeing someone as tall and muscular as Ichigo kissing a short and skinny as Mizuiro; and the possibility of that was very low because Mizuiro was into women. Older women.

Uryu sat back down on the edge of Ichigo's bed, by his feet. "So what should we do now?"

"I dunno." Ichigo leaned on the wall behind his bed. He stood up and logged on to his computer. He had left open a few websites he had visited a while ago. They were his e-mail which had his chat open; (Uryu wondered just what they were chatting about because Ichigo had hurriedly closed it up) and a few guitar tabs for some song he was trying to learn. The raven haired boy just pulled out some sewing stuff and began working on another shirt. It was a dark violet in color; he had started sewing "Nice Vibe" on it before Ichigo turned around and asked what language it was in.

"English."

"Really? That's cool... Do you know any other languages?"

"A lot actually. German, Spanish… the list goes on." Uryu thumbed his hair through his fingers lazily. "I could teach you some if you'd like…" He resumed sewing, not looking at Ichigo as he spoke, his eyes trailing off to the scissors that he needed to cut out the next felt letter. He thought that this was turning out better than he had initially because he lacked the typical fabric that he used to make letters with. He was going to give this to Ichigo; who seemed to like it already.

"So what does that say?"

Uryu explained it to him using "little words" as he had promised. Ichigo asked him if he could have it.

"This was originally going to be yours anyways. Uryu thumbed the purple cloth in his fingers, and after sewing on the B and E he was satisfied. It looked lovely, the letters were all neatly cut and sewed on, and Ichigo had put on a bright red long t-shirt on underneath so that the purple kind of popped a bit. The kid might have weird style but his understanding of colors and how they work together was very tuned in. Ichigo went downstairs in his new shirt, having been complimented by Yuzu. He explained that Uryu had made it; so she mentioned it to him to. Uryu beamed. He was happy that someone was noticing his work; and told himself mentally that he'd make Yuzu something next.

"So what are we doing next Ichigo?" Uryu popped up behind Ichigo.

"We?" Ichigo asked.

"Well I dunno… I thought that maybe we could hang out…" Uryu seemed really nervous. Ichigo was rather intimidating at times and the smart guy knew his place in Ichigo's mind. Except for the whole "doing it" thing; that seemed to be a question never answered.

"Wow; just kidding. You're so uptight." Ichigo snorted.

Uryu sighed in relief. Ichigo was so weird and scary sometimes; he was always tell Uryu to get a sense of humour but the boy had no idea when to be relaxed and when to be more serious. He tended to the latter; otherwise he was like a socially awkward penguin type of guy who would stand behind two people having a conversation for ten minutes and then he'd forget what he was going to say. He was still wondering what they were going to do; still Ishida followed Ichigo out of the door loyally.

As they walked quietly Ichigo had been texting his friends. Ichigo was a very slow text-er for someone who was born and lived in Japan; he often asked people to just text for him to save time. Uryu walked right beside Ichigo the entire time, he liked the scenery of the place (he had never really got a good view of this neighbourhood at day.) Then he watched Ichigo argue with the auto correct. He didn't really understand cell-phones because he never had one himself; yet watching Ichigo struggle with the small device and with his rather large thumbs still made him giggle.

"Oh great. Now I don't have any service. What a pain in the ass!" Spoken like a true Jap.

"Well you could just find whoever you're looking for." Uryu looked at who Ichigo was talking to.

"Well- I guess. He lives across town though." Ichigo pointed down the street.

"Hm. I'm up for a nice long walk; are you?" Uryu smiled. They silently agreed to go to whoever's house.

When they made it across town it was around 12:00. The sun was up high and it was around 20 degrees out.

"So who exactly are we going to meet up with?" Uryu prodded his glasses up on his nose a bit. It was an odd habit. The dark haired boy had no idea where it came from exactly; maybe when his glasses were way too big for his head?

"Well all of my (and maybe your) friends have managed to all get invited to Keigo's place. So now we are going there too." Ichigo stated.

Uryu huffed. He hadn't planned on doing much today and he was too tired to deal with people. Maybe he could just ignore everyone and pretend to be asleep? Nah; Ichigo would either brush him off or wake him up. It wasn't like he was the life of the party; also he was rather shy and wasn't good at talking to others.

Ichigo knocked before letting himself in; he knew that Keigo wouldn't keep him out even if he had a bloody axe in his hands. That wasn't even stretching it.

Keigo had nothing against pouncing on him though. Ichigo threw him off though; making sure it hurt but not enough to kill the boy. "Ichigo how could you be so cruel?" Keigo got up and dusted off his jeans. His apartment was nice; the furniture was lime green, and the cupboards were all white.

Uryu looked around, this place seriously reminded him of his father's house; except the furniture was all blue. He walked up to a catfish tank that Mizuho had been taking care of for a while now. Most of the fish were white and orange and there were lots of decoration; a treasure chest kinda looking thing and plants. Uryu watched them for a bit; until he realized that there were other people in the room. Renji in particular, whom he had caught looking at his ass again. He sat down beside Chad and Mizuiro, he thought that Mizuiro smelt a bit like a ginger snaps and too much axe; but it was alright.

Ichigo entered with Keigo; food and pop in his arms. He set down most of the food on the table but kept those lovely little cheese puffs in his arms for himself. Uryu took a few oreos and didn't talk much unless he was asked a question. Other than that he tried to stay pretty quiet.

"What's wrong Uryu-san?" Mizuiro asked.

"Oh no nothing- wh-why do you ask?" Uryu stuttered. He was really zoned out.

"Well you have this searching look in your eyes; I just thought that you were sad or scared or something. Heh…"

"Nope. I just- um… It's nothing I just don't like uh- I don't talk much." Uryu smiled but most of them could see right through it.

As they all had a conversation Uryu sat and drifted off to sleep on Chad's arm. He snored lightly; and Ichigo swore he could hear him mutter something along the lines of "no mister brontosaurus- I don't want any more interlaminated testicles." Ichigo was seriously starting to question Ishida's sanity for a bit before keeping up his conversation with Tatsuki. They were talking about Ishida; she was one of the very few people Ichigo could really open up to aside from Chad and he felt that a girl was easier to talk with seriously. In fact this point was proven by the fact that he had almost spilt the beans about Uryu and his rather shameful past. It wasn't him being dumb or drunk, but he had really gotten into talking and had nothing much else to talk about. His family was normal, and everyone had kind of figured out about how Ichigo was a Shinigami.

Still; they managed to have a good time and great conversation about the boy, Ichigo had him almost figured out and learned how to talk to him without insulting, angering etc Uryu.

Mizuiro nudged Ishida back awake; apparently Mizuho was back and was teaching Ichigo some kendo moves, and now the stereo was on and pounding some killer dubstep. He was surprised he could sleep through all of that…

"Morning "sunshine"," Ichigo said sarcastically. "You slept for, like, 6 hours dude." Ichigo dodged an otherwise knockout blow from Keigo's older sister.

"That's good, because he'll have lots of energy for the party tonight!" Keigo was sitting on the couch behind Uryu. Party? Oh dear…


	6. Chapter 6

_**K. So I've finally returned from my hiatus of ANYTHING. I feel awful. Um… I've had so many setbacks with my writing. It's stressing me out. Our Wifi is… meh and it always craps out for a long time, and this one was exceptionally long. K so yeah.**_

_**Chapter 6: FEELings/Uryu's all male harem!**_

_**It's Ichigo versus his "fruity friends" for the Grand Prize: Uryu!**_

_**Author's Note: I have had such misfortune with this story, Chapter 6 in particular. It may be cursed. It has died many times.**_

_**First time: I accidentally deleted it.**_

_**Second time: Mom found it and scolded me for writing Shonen Ai, and deleted the file later on that day.**_

_**Third time: Restarted it, but then mom walked in to the room so I panicked and deleted the whole thing. I panicked okay!**_

_**Fourth time: Laptop overheated and shut down suddenly, not saving the chapter.**_

_**Fifth time: Sister found it and replaced all the words "the" and "he" with profanities.**_

_**Sixth time: USB stick with ALL my files got destroyed. I even had a few one-shots that I planned on posting on there!**_

_**In addition, my internet router is FUCKED. So I can't post.**_

_**Yeah, I made ALL the guys want Uryu! K so I know Keigo would never be bisexual in any Bleach but I couldn't help myself! Besides, it is a fanfiction! So I read this Ichigo/Keigo thing and I thought it was so cute! ^.- That's probably why Keigo is a hat-lover here.**_

The whole group seemed to stand up and stretched at the same time. Ichigo looked at his "watch that wasn't there" and guessed that it was around 9 PM.

"So who will be driving with who?" Keigo asked, yawning.

Renji and Tatsuki were the only people there who could drive, (Chad had a licence but no car), and Renji was a maniac on the road, his car was unreliable as well. However, Tatsuki had a small car that could only take about three or four people, and that would be all the girls.

"Girls will go with Tatsuki, and guys will be with Renji." Ichigo said. They all nodded, it seemed simple enough. When the time came that all the guys piled into the car, Ichigo found himself sitting in between Keigo and Chad, which he didn't object to, Uryu and Renji were sitting in the front with Mizuiro in between them.

Ichigo sat in a bit of daze thinking about being in the middle, beside Uryu- wait what? _'Why would I wanna be beside Uryu?'_ Ichigo thought, his head started hurting.

The car started sputtering, and soon Renji pulled off to the side of the road. "What happened?" Uryu asked, his eyes wide at Renji. He went out to the front with the crimson haired man, soon everyone else followed. Uryu watched Renji taking off his white shirt so that it wouldn't be stained from the oil, there was still an undershirt underneath- Uryu still gawked at the muscular guy. Renji looked back at him and smiled.

Ichigo took this distraction as an opportunity to change the seating plan; he sat in the middle seat in the front of the car. Soon enough, Renji went back in the car, and Mizuiro sat to his right. Uryu took a backseat beside Keigo. He had been foiled, Ichigo wanted to sit beside Uryu- not Chad! He wondered why he desired to sit near the stupid hoe that his family happened to take in, instead of his best friend, but he didn't think for very long because he saw Tatsuki's white car passing them. Orihime stuck out her tongue at them.

"SPEED UP RENJI!" Keigo yelled from the back, he didn't want a bunch of girls passing them, which simply wouldn't do.

"No, Keigo. They can speed all they want but I'm broke and I don't want another ticket." Renji said responsibly, and lit a cigarette. Ichigo looked at the small stick of tobacco curiously; he had always wondered why Renji smoked them, especially when he was still a teenager! It wasn't healthy. Uryu eyed the cigarette longingly. He had picked up many habits from his life on the streets, and smoking was one of them; he was still tempted to have a puff or two here and there. He yawned and sat back, realizing how close he was to Keigo. He blushed and moved away, but it seemed like Keigo was slowly getting closer every time he inched away. Uryu experimentally leaned in on Keigo, and found that the boy didn't move. Keigo moved even closer, their shoulders were practically touching now. Uryu blushed and looked at Keigo, who wasn't looking back; he was acting natural. Uryu smiled, Keigo finally smiled in return.

The ginger in the front seat looked back to see Keigo gazing at Uryu, he knew that the boy was bisexual but he strongly preferred girls, so why was he looking at Uryu that way? Furthermore, why was Uryu looking back? He wished that he could pry them apart somehow, but Keigo was locked on someone he liked so Ichigo figured there was no point in trying to sway him. Maybe Uryu's appealing looks got Keigo's attention away from the women.

Ichigo huffed and looked back out the front window. He smiled when he felt Chad's elbow on his shoulder, the giant often used Ichigo as an armrest in this fashion. He saw Chad look down at him, so he looked up and smiled. Chad was probably one of the few people that he'd admit his homosexuality to; he was a good person and wouldn't judge him. Ichigo just wasn't sure if he wanted to tell him that just yet, he'd have to bring it up sooner or later however. He leaned back in his seat and sighed, this car ride was taking a lot longer than expected.

Tatsuki lived on the opposite side of town; they were driving under a darkening azure sky. She often had parties at her place, her parents were rarely there, and she didn't have to worry about thin apartment walls like most of her other friends.

Renji seemed to be taking more care in his driving, Ichigo presumed it was because Uryu was in the car, and everyone had pretty much guessed that Renji liked the smaller male. Maybe they would have to take Uryu along more often- as a safety precaution.

When the black car pulled into the driveway the group of males saw Tatsuki had her house ready in advance, there were already people showing up, most of them were either a grade higher or lower than them, but Ichigo figured that their grade was just showing up late to be cool. Uryu started walking up to the door, but he found all of the guys were following him closely. He stopped. They stopped. He took a step. They took a step.

Uryu turned around. "What's up?" He asked innocently.

Nobody said anything so Uryu turned around and walked in, his 'entourage' carefully following him. He felt people's eyes on him, but they soon went back to their conversations, so he decided that he'd stick with his friends for a bit. Renji and Ichigo stuck right close to him, Uryu didn't mind, but he couldn't help but wonder why they were supervising him so. Everyone at the party seemed pretty relaxed, they were probably waiting until it got a little later to start busting out liquor.

Ichigo put his hand on Uryu's shoulder and guided him through the dense crowd of people in the front hallway, and led him to the kitchen where it wasn't as packed, he appreciated this because he was too small to just push through the tight knit cluster of humans.

"Thanks Ichigo." Uryu smiled faintly, he heard someone playing music on a stereo outside. Ichigo sat on the counter and invited Uryu to sit beside him, but Renji took the spot where Ichigo was offering so Uryu sat beside _him_, not Ichigo. Thankfully, Uryu was oblivious to this, and never really noticed that all the men were getting competitive over him.

Renji took his sweater off and yawned, Uryu blushed and looked at his body, and he felt so inadequate compared to some of his new friends, especially Renji and Chad. He stared at his feet and sighed, the men around him noticed the dismal look on his face, started chatting him up, Uryu liked Renji's little jokes, and Ichigo was being so sweet to him. They passed an hour that way, now it was around ten. Ichigo texted his father that they'd be home fairly late.

Isshin got a little worried about his son but then texted back "OK." He didn't know how late Ichigo and Uryu would be and it bothered him slightly.

Uryu smiled warmly at Renji, he wondered why he liked this guy so much, he wasn't even all that nice to people and his face was kinda funny looking, except for his lips…

"Uryu-kun!" Ichigo stared at Renji and Uryu in horror, his "adoptive-friend" had reached up with his neck and kissed Renji.

The black haired boy pulled back before Renji did. His cheeks were really pink and Renji was a tomato of redness. They had attracted some attention, but most people looked away again and went back to talking. Keigo saw it and freaked out a little, he went to stand near them. Soon, men that Uryu didn't even know well were standing there "escorting" him and getting him drinks, until the small teenager was very smashed. There was one man though, that caught Uryu's eye, even though he hadn't even offered to get him a drink or talked to him yet. He just… remained there.

He didn't know his name, but he had three vertical scars running down his cheek, and he had a 69 tattooed right beside it. He knew that if he was standing there with the rest of the males who were trying to court him, then he probably liked Uryu back. He hopped off the counter and stood in front of the stranger and smiled, the teenager smiled back slightly, but he knew what he wanted from Uryu, and it was a lot more complicated than just a smile. He whispered something in Uryu's ear.

It made Ichigo suspicious, what was the stranger planning on doing with Uryu?

Uryu whispered something back, his cheeks were pink, and his face looked a little… lusty. Ichigo frowned and looked at his feet. He saw the other man holding Uryu's hand; they were going to a bathroom. Ichigo looked through the keyhole to see that they were making out roughly, Uryu was pinned against the wall and the man kept grabbing at his ass; the boy looking through the keyhole felt heavyhearted as he slunk back to the kitchen, where he saw that Renji was still sitting on the counter.

"So what were they doing?" The red haired man asked.

"I think they're gonna have sex…" Ichigo mumbled, it looked like what the couple in the bathroom were doing would escalate quickly. "Knowing Uryu, he'll probably wind up doing a lot of men that he doesn't know."

"He does that?" Renji asked.

"Yeah, he seems a little "man-happy" lately… He's surrounded by the same sex so what can you expect." Ichigo smiled slightly. "We did it recently, and I don't even think he finds me even slightly attractive. You should see how he looks at _you_ sometimes."

"He looks at me?" Renji turned to face Ichigo.

"Yah, all the time." Ichigo said, he saw a weak smile on Renji's face. "I think he likes you."

Renji smiled even wider now. He was happy just being around Uryu, but if the boy liked him that would be really cool, maybe they could even go out, but that was a longshot. Uryu was also interested in many other guys, many other guys that had many things that he didn't.

"Yeah, but now he's gone off and done Shuhei." Renji smiled.

"Shuhei? So that's who he is. I swear I've seen him before." Ichigo said, yawning.

"Don't get tired already, we're at a party." Renji smiled. Ichigo huffed.

"I guess you're right." He stretched. "Well… what should we do?" Ichigo asked, his hand brushing through his hair.

"We could go and dance?" Renji suggested.

"We should spy on those two in the bathroom." Ichigo completely ignored Renji's proposition.

Renji followed the ginger to the outside of the bathroom quietly; he was already peering through the keyhole. "Holy shit Renji…" He whispered. Ichigo backed off from the keyhole, his eyes wide.

"What's up?" Renji looked through the keyhole to see what the hottest thing he would ever witness was quite possibly. He backed up to where Ichigo was standing, across the hallway.

"That Shuhei guy… isn't bad." Ichigo said, smiling. He tried to calm down the lump in his pants but couldn't, and it didn't matter how long he waited, the image wasn't going out of his head. He heard Uryu moaning and sighing, it was useless to try and calm down. He knocked on the door experimentally, the only answer was Uryu moaning even louder and then the noises died down, Ichigo presumed they were finished banging so they moved away from the door.

A few minutes later Uryu stumbled out of the bathroom, limping. Shuhei followed and helped Uryu walk by supporting some of the boy's weight on his shoulder. Renji thought that it was kind of him to do that, but Ichigo thought that he shouldn't have made Uryu limp in the first place. When they did it he was more or less careful, he was constantly asking Uryu how he was doing and if it hurt or not, and he never limped.

"Aren't they cute together?" Renji said a few minutes later, Ichigo, and he were sitting outside; he needed a smoke and he didn't think Tatsuki would appreciate him smoking inside. Ichigo watched Uryu sitting in Shuhei's lap, talking to him occasionally.

"Do you think they're going out?" he turned to face Renji; he was a little scared of the answer.

Renji took another puff of his cigarette and got a thinking look on his face. "I dunno…"

"I think Uryu isn't, he's too much of a hoe to stay in a serious relationship for long…" Ichigo smiled. Renji looked at him funny.

"Hoe is an interesting name to call him… He's too smart to do stupid shit like that." He looked off. Ichigo snorted on accident. "What?"

"Nothing." Ichigo looked away.

"The truth, please. Did I say something stupid."

"No, you didn't. It was just… Never mind." Ichigo looked back.

Renji thought back on their conversation. It hit him like a ton of bricks. "Uryu… was a whore?" Renji looked at Ichigo, wide eyed.

Ichigo then proceeded to explain to Renji how if he told anyone it would be the last thing he ever said, and that Uryu found out he would probably kill himself as well.

"So why was Uryu running away?" He asked.

"I think that he had an abusive family member or something like that, he doesn't wanna talk to me very much." Ichigo said. "Maybe if we ask him, he'd tell us."

Renji stood up, and helped Ichigo to his feet. They walked over to a very drunk Uryu, who was talking to Shuhei, a small smile on his face. Ichigo wished that Uryu would smile more often; he always looked so nice when he did.

"Hey Uryu." Renji sat on ledge beside Uryu. "Can I ask you something?"

"Well, you just asked me if you could ask me something…" Uryu turned away from Shuhei and spoke, the smile remained on his face, but then he yawned. "But go ahead, what's your other question." He smiled again.

"Why did you run away?" Ichigo asked when Renji didn't reply.

Uryu's smile fell. "Why do you ask?"

"Well uh…" Ichigo didn't know how to respond to it. "Well I was just curious."

"Here. Dad beat me and mommy was dead so she couldn't help." Uryu said flatly. He still referred to his mother as "mommy" because she died when he was at a very young age, and he never really outgrew the excessively childish name for her. Ichigo thought he sounded cute when he spoke like that, Renji felt like melting, but they knew that they'd have to come up with decent responses.

"Well Renji just wanted to know because yah." The ginger ran off, he went to go see Keigo. The other man stood there awkwardly in front of Uryu. They didn't talk for a long while.

"Come sit Renji." Uryu's blue eyes stared into Renji's. They were so vibrant, brilliant really, as the boy patted the spot beside him. "I'm not used to being around so many strange people, it's good to have a familiar face or two." He smiled. "C-can I kiss you again?"

"Sh-Sure." Renji's eyes widened a little as Uryu leaned in and pressed his lips against the other male's, there were people watching, but they didn't care. Well, at least Uryu could say he was really drunk. He wondered why Uryu was kissing him so nicely, it was as if the boy was trying to be gentle on the other man, who was much more rugged than he. He could smell something funny in Uryu's mouth. It wasn't a particularly bad smell, just a little different. He kissed a little deeper, and after a while, he recognized the scent to be marijuana. He pulled back. "Uryu, were you getting high?"

"Oops. Don't tell Ichigo." Uryu said flatly, as if he was innocent of anything. Renji leaned in a little further and they resumed kissing, Shuhei waiting beside them awkwardly.

Meanwhile, inside, Ichigo was trying to find some of his other friends, Uryu was drunk and an idiot, and all Renji wanted to do was kiss him, so there was no real point in staying out there. He spotted Keigo after a while, he looked like he was looking for someone as well. Ichigo stopped him.

"Hey Ichigo have you seen Uryu?" He said quickly. Ichigo rolled his eyes and led the shorter male to Uryu, and sat beside Shuhei despite not knowing the first thing about him.

He held out his hand to Ichigo, who reluctantly shook it. "I saw you with Uryu-chan, what's your name?" He said.

Ichigo didn't like the way he referred to Uryu with a –chan honorific but it didn't matter, Shuhei seemed nice enough to Uryu to call him whatever he wanted. "I'm Ichigo, nice to meet you." Ichigo missed the warmth of Shuhei's hand; it was actually getting mildly cold out. He put his hands in his sweater pockets and shivered. Uryu looked over from Renji for a second at Ichigo, but he went back to his business with Renji when he saw Ichigo looking back at him. He saw that Keigo was now sitting in between Uryu and Shuhei, it bothered him to know that he had so much competition for the guy that was living in his house.

He looked at his options. He could kill all the men on the planet that were better looking than him, but it seemed a little extreme. And illegal. Lobotomizing Uryu seemed like a good thing to do, but it sounded a little old-fashioned and crazy. And illegal. He could take Uryu by force, but that seemed a little mean. And illegal. After a long, dark, train of thought he came to the conclusion that he would have to work what little charm he had and hope for the best. Ichigo sighed; he didn't know what he could do to impress Uryu. He didn't get to know the boy very well, and he was kind of a douche to him all the time, but that could change, he could try talking to Uryu, or maybe he could just ask him out. However, the possibility of the little twit rejecting him was profoundly intimidating. He wanted to be sure that Uryu wouldn't shoot him down

Uryu was still making out with Renji. It bothered Ichigo. A lot. It made him want to go over to Renji, shove him away, and then kiss Uryu himself. He didn't want to admit that he was extremely jealous of invidious Renji, his new rival, who was making out with the snot that took over his life, and his bed, and his bedroom. He also stole the entire blanket when they slept.

He yawned, and Uryu turned to face him. He tried winking but his face was all screwed up, he really hadn't winked at people before. Uryu giggled and turned back to Renji, but he just gave him a peck on the cheek before going to sit beside Ichigo.

"How long do we have to stay here?" He asked; his voice was whiny.

"Until Renji wants to leave, he's the one who's driving." Ichigo said. "But you could probably ask him to drive you home early, he seems to like you." He added when Uryu huffed and turned away.

"I just don't understand why you always want me to come and be with _your_ friends." He turned to face Ichigo again.

"Well do you have any friends of your own?" He questioned.

"I used to. But most of them died." Uryu was referring to the whole "Quincy Genocide" thing that the Shinigami pulled, however, Ichigo didn't ask any further because he didn't want to bother Uryu.

"Oh…" Ichigo sat a little closer to Uryu, who didn't move away. He saw the boy was slouching, which was out of character for him. "Is something wrong?"

Uryu shook his head.

"Are you sure?" Ichigo leaned in slightly, trying to read the expression on the other's face, but the hair framing his face hung down by his cheeks. "If something's the matter then you can tell me." The boy shook his head again. "Okay, if you say so…" Ichigo turned away and sighed, his head was starting to hurt. Renji was chatting with Shuhei, he seemed a little giddy to be talking to the other man, either that or their designated driver had drank a lot more than he was supposed to. Because Renji was now ignoring him, Uryu got up and sat in between Ichigo and Shuhei; he leaned on Ichigo but was chatting with the other guy; Ichigo was satisfied with just having some contact with Ishida but he wished that the boy would just have a decent conversation with him. He was perfectly fine with talking to other men, so why was he avoiding speaking with the guy he was living with?

They sat there for a long time. Keigo was sitting on the far right, Renji to his left, Shuhei to his left, Ichigo, then Uryu. Keigo seemed awfully quiet, probably because he had a few drinks in his system and he was deep in thought. Ichigo felt Uryu yawn against his shoulder, it was cute, but if Uryu fell asleep they had no idea what to do with his sleeping body. He poked Uryu's surprisingly soft cheek to check if he was awake; the boy stared at him with a rather tired look in his eye. "Don't fall asleep already…"

Uryu pecked Ichigo's lips, the ginger blushed, and looked away, hoping that no one saw what just happened. His heart fluttered a bit and he felt slightly dizzy, his mind was busy not making any sense and his eyelids seemed heavier now. Ishida noted Ichigo's reaction, he really hoped that Ichigo wasn't going to faint or something like that, but also, he was a little proud of himself for making someone act like that just because he kissed him. He gave Ichigo another kiss, this time on the cheek.

"Do you wanna walk home?" Ichigo asked after redeeming himself, he was smiling like an idiot and blushing like a schoolgirl.

"Isn't it across town?" Ishida asked, his eyes widening. The thought of a long walk with a man rather excited him, but he would've been absolutely giddy if it were Renji or Shuhei asking him. Still, Ichigo wasn't all that dreadful, he had nice eyes and wasn't obnoxious like some people he knew, so he tried to act like he was excited.

"Yeah, but it won't take very long." He replied.

Uryu nodded slowly. Ichigo told Renji that Uryu and he were going home early, said bye to everyone, and they began their little stroll home. It was getting chilly out, Uryu felt the goose bumps on his arms. He blushed when he felt Ichigo put his jacket on his shoulders; Ishida quickly wrapped the thin coat around his body and smiled, looking back at Ichigo, who was wearing a sweater that looked a little small on him.

Walking a little faster to keep up with Uryu, Ichigo heard talking in an alleyway. He figured that it was someone dealing drugs from all the hushed voices that they were speaking in, but he decided that he'd go and see what was going on. The other boy followed him closely, he saw he was a few paces ahead of him so he slowed down and made sure that they were close together just to make sure that the boy was safe and at his side.

He heard the voices get louder. Uryu turned to look in the alley, he knew those men. They… _touched_ him. It made him sick just looking at them, they were clearly shooting up in the alley. He clung to Ichigo's arm as they walked past; his heart was racing.

"What's wrong Uryu?" He looked down to the little guy, who was still tightly clinging to his arm.

He looked back up to Ichigo, his eyes were watery and his cheeks were pinkish, he almost looked a little sick with his pale skin. Ichigo didn't have to know what was the matter, he gave Uryu a tight hug and they stayed there for a while, Ichigo rocking back and forth slightly every so often. "Uryu…" He felt the boy shaking, trembling against his body. "Can we walk now?"

Uryu nodded and pulled away from the other male, his arm interlocked with Ichigo's, he still remained close to him because he was scared that those horrible men, not much older than he, would come out of nowhere, and violate him once more.

"We're almost home." Ichigo said reassuringly, squeezing Uryu's hand. He had figured out why the boy was so scared, he must've had some bad experience with them or another. Ichigo felt Uryu squishing up against him, they were walking past another alley. Apparently, he was scared of the dark passageways, so Ichigo made sure that he walked on the outside of the sidewalk, but still Ishida was sure to cling to Ichigo's side whenever he was unsure. "See, look. We made it." Ichigo opened the door to see that Isshin had passed out on the couch; Ichigo flicked off the TV and turned on the kitchen light, not caring if it disturbed Isshin's sleep. He helped Uryu to sit down at the table, and made some coffee for them to warm up.

He poured two mugs of coffee and put cream and sugar in them, he gave one to Uryu, who took it in his wobbly cold fingers. He heard Uryu sniffling, so he sat down beside the boy and squeezed his hand. "Do you wanna talk about anything?"

Uryu shook his head. "I'm fine, I'm just feeling a little… weird almost. I don't know what to say." He looked at Ichigo with a sad look on his face. "But if you want to talk about something…"

"Well why do you seem so dishevelled all of a sudden?" Ichigo looked him in the eye. "You can talk to me."

Uryu smiled, Ichigo was busy telling him to shut up after everything he said when he first got there. Why the sudden change of heart? "Well I think I can deal with this on m-my own but thanks for the help." He sipped his coffee, still looking Ichigo in the eye. "So is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"No not really." Ichigo watched as Uryu leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Why'd you just do that?"

Uryu paused… "Hey Ichigo… why don't we go upstairs?" He asked.

Ichigo knocked back his coffee as quickly as he could and followed Uryu, who was walking up the stairs sultrily. The other was right behind him, eager for some of the things to come…

_Around thirty minutes later, in Ichigo's bedroom…_

Ichigo could hear Uryu's heavy breathing into the pillow that they sometimes shared. He blushed and looked over to see Uryu's face, laced with ecstasy and lust, gazing at him. He wondered if he did anything different this time than last time. The first time they had sex Uryu gave him a look that said he was forgetting something important. Now he looked totally satisfied, 'sated,' for lack of a better word.

"Ichigo…" Uryu gasped out, he looked a little exhausted.

"Yes Uryu?" He leaned in, wiping some warm liquid off his ankle. "What's up?"

"W-well I was wondering if he could do this… more often?" He asked quietly. "I'm not asking for any relationship, just some… uh…"

"Sorry, you'd have to be dating me." Ichigo said, smiling. "This is but a preview." He leaned in and kissed Uryu's forehead.

"Have you even dated any guys before?" Uryu asked, wiping off his sweaty nose.

"Nope." Ichigo said flatly.

Uryu sighed. "Are you asking me out?"

"Yep."

"Clever… I like clever. Maybe we could try it out…" Uryu got a little closer to Ichigo and wrapped his legs around the other's waist, smiling.

"So we should go to the movies tomorrow." He said.

"Like… on a date?" Uryu questioned. He didn't see any point in dating because living in a house together is plenty of time together already. Ichigo nodded. "Okay… you pick the movie."

"I buy tickets. Just ta let you know." Ichigo rubbed his nose against Uryu's, he was really smitten with the boy, he wanted to keep him away but he also wanted to get as close as possible to him at the same time.

"Okay, I'll buy the snacks... then..." Uryu yawned and was soon snoring. Ichigo yawned afterwards and buried his nose in his new boyfriend's hair, smiling, this was one great night.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: _**Nappy time/Karin's Sex-Ed Class**_

_**I did ******RESEARCH****** for this chapter! (Measles, yick… Nasty.)**_

_**I think I have writing ADD. I kept standing up and down to tuck in the dog, pet her, pet the cats, share my apple with the dog, text friends, take a walk… I was so distracted…**_

*Yay! Go Yaoi Fan Karin!* Yaoi is the sunshine of my life

1550 yen= approx. 20$ Canadian.

Uryu sat up in the morning, his head hurt, and his butt hurt even more, and when he looked at the clock, he saw that it was nearly _twelve_; however, Ichigo was still lying asleep beside him. He sighed, if anyone needed them they could just knock. He smiled and stretched his back, which Ichigo was pinning against the wall; he had his legs wrapped around Ichigo's waist and his chin was resting on Ichigo's neck. He normally found human contact nasty and unsanitary, but right now, he liked the warmth that Ichigo was giving off, it was very comforting to know that men aren't only acting affectionate towards him to get sex from him, but some actually liked him.

When Ichigo finally woke up at around twelve thirty, he found that Uryu was still snoozing in his arms. Isshin was supposed to be out early and home late tonight so that meant that they could do whatever they wanted to do, as long as it wasn't destructive, illegal etc… He pinched Uryu's cheek to wake him up, it didn't have the pudginess of Yuzu's small cheeks, but they weren't bony like Karin's face. They were in between, cute but boyish to some degree.

Uryu's eyes opened slowly, he was still a little hung-over. He was just starting to get back to a deep sleep when Ichigo woke him, so he felt groggy and wanted to flop back down on the sheets, which weren't doing a very good job at covering up his body. He didn't say anything.

"Uryu, are you okay?" Ichigo held Uryu up by his shoulders. "Uryu?"

"Y-yeah, Ichigo. I'm fine." He put his hands up to his forehead and sighed. "I'm just a little sleepy."

"A little?" Ichigo prodded Uryu's cheek some more, it was profoundly entertaining to bother the boy, especially when he wasn't making any efforts to get him to stop. "I don't think I've seen you in such a state before." He scooped Uryu up in his arms and set him in his lap like a puppy. He squished Uryu tight to himself and breathed on the other's neck; he blushed and pulled away because there was nothing really covering himself up. "What's the matter?"

"I'm naked!" Uryu squirmed out of Ichigo's grasp and blushed.

"As am I." He said flatly. He gave Uryu a kiss on the lips and stood up, he was wearing underwear because he put them on directly after having sex with Uryu, and he decided that he would get in the habit of doing that for the sake of his little sisters.

"You're wearing underwear." He replied. "Pass me my pants."

Ichigo tossed him his pants along with some fresh underwear. Uryu slid on his jeans after his undies and stood up, feeling a little dizzy from his headache. "I think Yuzu and Karin were making plans with their friends, so we have the house to ourselves." Ichigo said, cupped Uryu's chin in his hands, kissed him sweetly, and left the room to go see his sisters, but they weren't home.

Uryu looked in Ichigo's drawer to see if he could borrow something to wear from him; he didn't have much for clothes except for three pairs of jeans and a few shirts. He found a shirt that was tight on Ichigo, it was a little big on him, but he tucked it in his jeans so it wasn't noticeable. He walked downstairs to see Ichigo was making something to eat; he was making sandwiches and they looked pretty tasty. He went to stand beside Ichigo, he kissed the ginger's cheek, but the other ignored him, he was taking time on his sandwiches.

When he was done, he sat down at the table with Uryu and they ate quietly, Uryu sat across the table, fiddling with his hair as he ate, and yawning occasionally.

"Why are you so quiet Uryu?" Ichigo asked, biting into his sandwich.

"Mm… I dunno. I'm tired…" Uryu said, stretching his back, his arms over his head. Ichigo watched him quietly, finishing his sandwich. He looked out the window to the pouring rain, it was literally raining buckets, and the droplets of water looked huge. "I wanted to go for a walk but it's raining too hard."

"Yeah I guess." Ichigo smiled, and stood up to take his plate to the sink, he took Uryu's as well. "Well if the rain doesn't let up soon we could just find something to do inside."

Uryu nodded and looked over to the window, the rain was picking up considerably. He sighed, it was going to be a positively nasty day, they swore they could see a lightning bolt strike near their house; it startled the ginger when a loud, sudden crash of thunder sounded. He jumped slightly; Uryu snickered slightly before standing up, walking to the living room, yawning again, and sprawling on the couch with a tired look on his face. Ichigo walked over to his boyfriend, and sat on his knees, crushing them slightly with his bony ass.

The black haired boy squirmed slightly under his boyfriend's weight, it was getting a little painful, Ichigo weighed a lot more than he looked, probably from all the muscle he had on his bones. He felt Ichigo lifting him up off the couch; he lied down and set Uryu on top of himself, yawning.

"I kinda wanna go back to sleep." He said, enjoying Uryu's weight on top of him.

"Well do what you want but I'm staying right here." The boy felt Ichigo hugging his narrow waist, it was cute, and he yawned, there wasn't a problem written on either of their faces.

-oxoxox-

The door opened quietly as Karin and Yuzu walked in. The little black-haired girl readjusted her ponytail and smiled when she saw her brother and Uryu snoozing on the couch. She couldn't really call Uryu brother anymore because she knew that Ichigo liked the boy, and they had sex to boot. Yuzu looked at them from behind Karin and smiled as well.

"They're so cute!" She said cheerfully. "When's dad gonna be home?"

Karin looked at her wrist, but found she wasn't wearing her normal black watch; instead, a plastic wristband that Ichigo gave her took its place. It was a handout at some sort of festival that they went to; Ichigo didn't want it so he gave it to Karin, who now had a collection of similar bands, some red, some blue, and one even looked cool like tie-dye. She smiled. "Dad said that he would be home at around 11, he said that if we were still awake he would stay up with us."

They heard Uryu's quiet breathing mixed in with Ichigo's slight snores. It made Yuzu wonder why Uryu was sleeping right on top of her brother, but it was cute anyways. She watched as Uryu shifted onto his belly, he was still on top of Ichigo, Yuzu swore that she saw Ichigo leaning up in his sleep to kiss Uryu's lips; however, she didn't think much of it anyways. She knew that Ichigo was gay, but she didn't really know if she was quite comfortable seeing her brother kissing another boy, she couldn't picture it in her head when Ichigo first came out. Karin could, probably because she *read yaoi before bed, so she had a good imagination.

"Do you think Nii-San is in love with Uryu?" Yuzu asked quietly.

"Well duh!" She said; her voice was a lot louder than she intended it to be. She heard Ichigo stirring slightly, she turned to see Ichigo's hand grabbing at Uryu's… 'Behind.' They both blushed. "See? He's already done it with Uryu anyways."

"What did they do?" A sexually oblivious Yuzu asked, her eyes wide.

Karin threw her sister a yaoi, (which one of her older cousins had provided her with,) it was one about a boy with a split personality. Yuzu took it to the living room and quietly flipped through the pages, her eyes widening in slight shock, she really did hope that Karin was just saying that they did those things was just a silly joke. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but want to flick through the whole book; she was getting a bit absorbed in what was happening in the book, she noticed how the boy on the bottom was smaller, so she figured that if her brother really had sex with Uryu, then Ichigo was on top. She also took note of how the smaller boy, named Yukiteru, seemed to be in a great deal of pain whenever the larger male put his… 'Junk,' inside the other. She thought that if Ichigo was really hurting Uryu then the boy probably would've told him to stop.

When she finished the book, she handed it back to Karin with reddened cheeks, her sister was smiling cynically as she took the book back and hid it under her pillow in her room. If Yuzu was clueless about what the boys were doing then she figured she might as well teach her unaware sister some stuff that she probably didn't absolutely _need_ to know, but it was fun to see the shocked look on her face anyways.

She heard someone walking up the stairs, it sounded like Ichigo, but he was walking slower than usual. She looked out her door to see that Ichigo was carrying a still-asleep Uryu up the stairs, so he was going at a slow pace. Karin smiled and went back to the bedroom that she shared with Yuzu, sitting down on the bed and doing some of her summer reading assignment, she enjoyed reading like her brother, but the selection of books that she was allowed to choose from for her summer was all crap, or books that she had already read. She chose a book that she had already finished; she could've picked an even worse book.

Back in Ichigo's room, the ginger set Uryu on the bed and carefully brushed the silky black hair from the other's porcelain toned face. He always looked so beautiful when he slept, like a china doll made by a skilled artisan. He sat down facing Uryu, watching him sleep for a bit. He watched the boy's chest rise and lower, in time with his small breaths and sighs. Leaning down and kissing his boyfriend, he heard the front door open again, this time Yuzu was exiting. He wondered what exactly his sister was doing; he knew that she wouldn't get into any mischief, but he still looked out the window to see where his sister was going. She was trotting towards the store in her bright yellow raincoat and boots, (Ichigo thought she looked adorable,) presumably to buy some food to make dinner with, dad left about 1,550 yen for them.

Ichigo yawned quietly; he looked at the clock to see it was around five. They had been napping for quite a while, Uryu was still out, and if Isshin was home then he probably would've woken Uryu up by now in some childish way, like sitting on his face or something stupid like that. He couldn't blink the drowsiness from their nap from his eyes and his head somewhat hurt, but he was happy to know that Uryu was sleeping at his side and that he could just relax for a while. He leaned back onto the wall while he sat on the bed, he was just about to cuddle up beside Uryu before his facebook messenger went off, he went over and sat at the spinny chair, to see Renji had messaged him.

'_Hey Ichigo, why'd you leave the party early?'_ the text popped up.

'_Uryu wanted to go home.'_ He answered.

'_Why?'_

'_Because he was bored.' _

'_You should've given him some more to drink. Did you see him?' _

'_What are you talking about? I see him all the time.'_

'_What I meant was he was having a good time.'_

'_He wasn't. He wanted to go home.'_

'_Why?'_

'_I don't know! Ask him.'_

'_I can't.'_ Renji replied shortly.

'_I guess… Well I think he wanted to go home because everyone else was high and being stupid.'_

'_He was high too!' _

'_What?'_ Ichigo's eyes widened.

'_Yeah, he was baked man, how could you not tell?'_

Ichigo thought back to last night. He was acting a little weird, he was making out with random guys and probably fucked many of the random guys as well. _'Well I guess I wasn't paying attention.'_

'_So did you get any action from him?'_ Renji asked coolly.

Ichigo blushed. _'Yes…?'_

'_Cool cool. So what's he doing now?' _

'_He's been napping all day…'_ Ichigo said, smiling at the boy lying across from him.

'_Ah…' _

'_What are you doin'?_' Ichigo asked.

'_Thinking about Uryu… Doin' stuff.'_

'_I don't know what to read from that.'_

'_Try not to… That kid is a good kisser.'_ Renji added.

'_I know. But don't talk about him in that way.'_

'_Why?'_

'_He's mine.' _

Renji tried to think of a decent response, but couldn't. He simply typed '_Sweet. I gotta go,'_ and logged off. Ichigo wondered if telling him that was a bad idea, but he knew that Renji was mature and he liked plenty of other men so not having Uryu wasn't a big deal.

Ichigo sat back down on the bed and smiled, he was happy that Renji wasn't going to overreact to them going out. Then, Ichigo thought about his dad. What would Isshin think about them being gay; moreover, what would he think of him dating Uryu, the child that they'd recently taken under their wings. He decided that now was not the time to worry about it, he leaned down and gave Uryu a short kiss, the boy opened his eyes slowly.

"Hey Ichigo…" Uryu said with a scratchy voice.

"What's up?" He looked into Uryu's deep blue eyes.

"I don't feel too good…" He scratched out, his throat felt dry and he was having a hard time breathing.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo held Uryu in his arms.

"Y-yeah, it's just a little cold." Uryu smiled faintly. He looked really pale and weak; Ichigo knew that this was a bit more than just a little cold. "I'll be fine." Uryu leaned up and kissed Ichigo's cheek.

"Well, get some sleep. I'll be right here with you." He lied down beside Uryu and kissed the boy's clammy forehead. He didn't like to see Uryu all sick and weak like this, in fact, he absolutely hated it, and he wanted his dad to help. Too bad he would be home at eleven, and the sick boy should be sleeping at that hour. Maybe if he woke him up when dad came and then they could check him out. He heard Uryu's cute yawn and smiled, the boy was adorable sometimes. He heard Uryu mutter something in his ear. "Excuse me, what?"

"I-Ichigo… I think I might've got something from Shuhei." Uryu said quietly.

"Like an STD?" Ichigo asked quietly.

"N-no… we were using a condom of course!" Uryu said loudly, his voice was still very scratchy. "I meant like a cold, illness." Uryu said, smiling.

"Phew." Ichigo said, wiping some sweat off his brow. "I thought you got like, syphilis or something like that."

"No, silly. I'm not stupid enough not to use a condom." Uryu replied, smiling.

"Well you did get high." Ichigo said flatly.

Uryu thought back to last night. He had sex with three guys before he got high, and then the rest was a blur. "I guess…"

Ichigo kissed Uryu's cheeks and hoped that the boy hadn't caught syphilis or something awful like that, he never paid attention when the teachers all drilled them about STD's and their effects and symptoms and blah blah blah blah _blah blah blah_. He felt his heart race when Uryu snuggled closer into him, mumbling something in his sleep that Ichigo didn't quite catch, it was cute, whenever the little guy dreamt he seemed to talk to many different people. Sometimes Ichigo could vaguely guess what he was dreams were, one time Uryu was riding a giraffe and was chasing after a puppy.

The boy snoozed into Ichigo's chest until they heard Isshin making his entrance. Karin was still awake. Ichigo carefully peeled himself away from Uryu and walked downstairs, telling his dad to come upstairs and check to see if Uryu was sick, or worse…

Isshin ran up the stairs and saw Ishida lying on the bed, limp. "I can't really examine him if he's not awake." He said with an eyebrow raised.

Ichigo leaned in really close to Uryu's ear and whispered some things; (he didn't want to yell because Uryu had a headache,) but the boy wouldn't wake up. He tried kissing Uryu's lips, the boy simply wouldn't move. Isshin watched in mild horror as his son kissed another boy, but played it cool anyways because he didn't need Ichigo feeling bad for being attracted to men, he knew how it felt to be judged for something that he couldn't help. (He had really bushy eyebrows in high school. Poor Isshin…) It wasn't his parenting style to judge his children at all, anyways. He found Karin's yaoi stash a _long_ time ago and didn't say anything.

Uryu eventually stirred when Ichigo pinched his cheek.

"I-Ichigo… Is Isshin-san home?" He asked quietly. Ichigo suddenly remembered his dad was standing less than a metre behind them both, he probably saw all the times that he kissed Ishida. A blush suddenly crept up on his face.

"Yeah… He's right there."

Uryu looked to where Ichigo was pointing. "H-hi." Uryu stuttered, blushing, he hated when he talked like that, it made him feel a little below-par in intelligence.

Ichigo put his hand up to Uryu's forehead, he was burning up pretty bad, and his cheeks were rosy, along with his scratchy voice and complaints of headaches. "Dad, I think he's just got the 'flu." He said, turning back from Uryu. He couldn't really look his dad in the eye right now, and wasn't entirely sure why.

Isshin walked forwards and put his hand on Uryu's forehead. "Grab me a thermometer." Isshin demanded. Ichigo ran down the stairs as fast as he could, (do not attempt, you will fall,) grabbed the thermometer and ran back up. He watched Isshin push the small contraption past Uryu's lips, the boy accidentally passed out again. Ichigo smiled, looking down at Uryu he sighed and wanted to lie back down beside him, but Isshin was busy poking him with this and that so Ichigo wasn't about to get in the way.

"So what do you think it is?" Ichigo saw his dad put his hand up to his chin.

"What's he coughing like?" Isshin asked.

"It's all dry, and hacking." He described.

"Does he have a runny nose?" Isshin heard Uryu sniffle. Ichigo didn't have to answer. He also noticed Uryu's watery eyes, he was sneezing often, and he was talking about feeling aches all over his body. "I'd say he has measles. Perhaps kissing him was a bad idea." Isshin said flatly. Ichigo blushed. "Chances are you have it too." He pointed to his son. "You two stay up here, he probably had it before he _came_ here." Isshin said; he walked downstairs before Ichigo could protest. He remembered Yuzu and Karin had their shots and neither of them were likely to be infected, but he knew that Ichigo didn't because he wasn't there the day they were giving shots, because he had the 'flu. This seemed a little ironic, because Ichigo said that he just _had_ to go to school that day, and Isshin had no idea why. He was in kindergarten; it was now that he remembered that it was a booster shot for measles. Isshin facepalmed, if he knew that then he'd probably send him there for his shots and nothing else.

Uryu buried his face in the pillow; it was too light in the room and it hurt his eyes.

"Ichigo…" He muffled into the pillow.

"What's up?" Ichigo asked, sitting on the bed.

"Can you turn the lights off…?" Uryu sighed when the other flicked off the lights and only left a lamp with a thin blanket on top of it (to soften the light) on.

He heard Isshin running back up the stairs, Yuzu was chatting behind him, asking many questions. Isshin and her poked their heads in carefully, they were wearing surgeon masks and gloves, it made Ichigo feel extremely bad about himself; they thought they were _nasty_. Good thing Uryu was asleep; otherwise, he would be apologizing for getting sick. Ichigo smiled at the thought, his boyfriend was definitely a pushover, and he wasn't used to having people there to help him, so this had to feel a little foreign for the little guy.

"Also, Ichigo," Isshin said, his arms crossed, "You should know not to kiss a sick person" His voice was muffled slightly from the mask. Yuzu nodded like a cop. Ichigo smiled sheepishly. "Now lie down and get some sleep." He said.

"Mhm." She nodded again.

"B-b-but I'm not even sick!" Ichigo said. His brows knotted.

"Doctors orders!" Yuzu said, shaking her finger. They both set many things on Ichigo's desk.

"We put this stuff here along with directions for use so we don't have to come in often." Isshin explained.

Ichigo dejectedly lied down and snuggled up close to Uryu, his eyes shut and he heard the shower running. _'They had to take showers just because they went in my room…'_ Ichigo thought sadly. He felt like a loser. Nevertheless, it was Isshin's fault that he didn't get his shots. He didn't know what was up with Uryu getting sick, but he didn't care all that much anymore, Uryu didn't need to tell him anything he didn't want to, and Ichigo didn't need to pressure him into it. He wrapped his arms around Uryu's waist and felt the boy turn around to face the other way. He sneezed and coughed a few times. The ginger was happy that he wasn't coughing and sneezing like that, until he felt a tickle in his throat, it got worse and worse, until he sat up and started hacking into his elbow. Uryu opened his eyes and sat up beside Ichigo.

"Sorry babe." Ichigo said, putting his hand on Uryu's shoulder in the darkened room, he was sorry because he woke Uryu. He looked to see what they had put on his desk. An assortment of pills with sticky notes attached to them telling them how much to take, and how often, and some Kleenex and water bottles. They had to drink a lot of water. There were also cotton swabs for removal of what Isshin called 'conjunctivitis', Yuzu simplified and called them 'eye-crusties.' Ichigo smiled at his sister's cute elaboration, and looked to see if Uryu had any of these, 'crusties.' He did, so Ichigo took a cotton swab, poured some water from one of the bottles, and dabbed it along the sclera of Uryu's eye, it was then that Ichigo wondered if his boyfriend ever wore eyeliner, because it seemed darker than a normal persons did. He saw Uryu's watery eyes looking into his; they were wide because Ichigo was touching them sometimes with the puffball of cotton; Ichigo was trying to be careful, but every now and then he slipped up. It felt bad, because he normally prided himself in a steady hand when it came to things like this. He felt Uryu flinch slightly when he stood up suddenly, finished with his work.

"Hey Ichigo…?" he looked up to Ichigo, who was disposing of the used cotton ball.

"Yeah?" He turned to face Uryu.

"I'm not tired." He said; his eyes getting watery again. It was a symptom of measles; Ichigo felt it starting to develop in his own eyes.

"Me neither. We were napping all day…" Ichigo said, he was tired all day for some reason, he figured it was just an early symptom that he failed to acknowledge.

"Yeah… we were." Uryu said, deadpanned as he realized that they had literally slept all day. "We should stay up all night." He said with a straight face.

"Nope. We're going to need plenty of sleep. I kinda wanna get better." Ichigo said, putting his hand on top of Uryu's head and kissing his forehead. "I want you to get better as well."

"Why is there a bowl of water on the desk?" He asked quietly.

"It's to make the room more humid." Ichigo said, he had to deal with Yuzu when she had a bad cold, her throat was dry from the parched winter air so they were trying to at least make the air in her bedroom moist. Ichigo heard the door creak open, and Karin poked her head in, she was wearing gloves and a mask as well. "Sister? You really shouldn't be in here…"

"I just wanted to see you, and drop of some books for you and Uryu-kun…" She said, putting the books beside the boxes on Ichigo's desk. "I hope you two get better soon…" She said.

Ichigo smiled, along with Uryu. "Thanks." Uryu said.

"What he said." Ichigo yawned, and Karin exited the bedroom. "We should go to sleep…" He said after the door shut. They stripped to their underwear. The ginger stared at Uryu's thin body, how his skin pulled tight over his hipbones, and how it made a perfect line down to the inside of Uryu's narrow, bony thighs. He _had_ to do crunches in the morning before Ichigo woke up or something, because Ichigo had no idea how to get them to look like that.

"Ichigo…?" Uryu pulled his chin up so he was looking in his eyes.

"What's up?"

"You were zoning out." Uryu kissed his lips.

"Oh…" Ichigo blushed and looked away. He lied back down and pulled the blanket over his hips, however, Uryu crawled on top of him inside the blanket and pulled the blanket over his shoulders. They fell asleep like that, Ichigo liked Uryu's light warmth and scent on top of him.

_Le Ballin' side story… _

_Welcome to Karin's Yaoi Class_

Karin stood in front of small chalkboard authoritively. She had a meter stick in her hands and was dressed in a rather formal fashion, although the clothes were far too large for her, they were her mother's old clothes. She readjusted her fake glasses and wrote the word "YAOI" in capital letters, and then underlined it dramatically.

She looked out, to her 'classroom.' There, in the three desks in, sat Ichigo, Uryu, and Yuzu, they were her 'class.'

"So, do any of you know what this word means?" She pointed to it with her ruler. The little blonde girl with good posture raised her hand timidly. "Would you care to take a guess?" Ms. Karin said smoothly.

"Um… Is it that book that you gave me earlier?" Yuzu remembered seeing the same letters on the book that Karin kindly lent her.

"Yes… but what is it?"

Uryu rose his hand up in the air.

"Uryu-kun? Take a guess." She crossed her arms.

"Is it… the creation of the gods?" He said, smiling.

"Why yes. Good boy." Karin smiled, and threw him a candy, which he failed to catch. He stood up and carefully picked the small candy in a wrapper, and put the wrapper in his pocket, putting the small candy in his mouth.

"Thank you Ms. Karin."

"See? You could learn a few things from him Ichigo." Karin said smartly. Uryu was her favorite.

'_Yeah, like how to deep throat a cock…'_ Ichigo thought meanly; he had a big scary look on his face. He was just jealous of how _perfect_ Uryu was.

Yuzu and Uryu faced the front, while Ichigo gazed out the window to watch a bird. It was an expert worm-hunter, Ichigo observed. It hopped about, gobbling worms, and bringing some back to his nest where he guessed there were chicks. He smiled; the bird was a good mama, just like his.

Uryu noticed Ichigo not paying attention, but he didn't care, as this class was a bit pointless.

Karin went on to teach them to basics of yaoi, like how body hair was a no-no, and how Ukes should never be on top, and how Semes were always older, and how Ukes should wear glittery pink shoes and whatnot. She ended the class with a test.

Handing them out gracefully, noticing that Ichigo wasn't paying attention. She tapped his head with her ruler and then pointed to his test.

"If you pass, you get another candy." Karin winked. "Well, Ichigo if you pass you get _a_ candy, I don't recall ever giving you one." She smiled.

Uryu and Yuzu snickered, their noses already in their tests. He looked down to his test; it was all bullshit questions, ones that only an avid yaoi fan would ever understand.

Where was yaoi created?

What should you do in your spare time?

What is an Uke

What is a Seme

What is the best yaoi ever made?

What makes yaoi so amazing?

Answers to this quiz:

Where was yaoi created? On god's desk.

What should you do in your spare time? Read yaoi.

What is an Uke? An Uke is the boy on the bottom. He must be skinny and girly.

What is a Seme? A seme is the man on top. He must be muscly, tall, and amazingly good looking.

What is the best yaoi ever made? Okane Ga Nai.

What makes yaoi so amazing? The sexy-timez.

Ichigo just put a giant X across the paper and handed it in first, while Uryu was on the last two questions, and Yuzu was almost finished. They waited awkwardly for Karin to mark the tests, and when she handed them back, Yuzu and Uryu high-fived, while Ichigo crumpled up his paper and tossed it in the trash.

She gave everybody but Ichigo a gummy-worm.

"Stand," Karin said,

They stood.

"Bow."

They bowed.

"You may leave. Except for Yuzu, she's gotta help me move the desks back."

Ichigo left with his hand around Uryu's waist.

"I don't know about you, but I think Karin should be a teacher." Ichigo joked.

Uryu stood on the tips of his toes, gave the ginger a kiss on the cheek and half of his gummy-worm.

_End of le Ballin' Side Story_

_I made this extra because the actual chapter wound up a little shorter than usual. I hope you enjoyed! ^.^ _

_-Kisses!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8_

_PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEA SEPLEASE REVIEW! I wonder if anyone is still reading this story. …_

_*A symptom of measles is extreme photosensitivity; it's pretty much where light bothers the eye. It kinda sucks. _

_*Another symptom is a dull aching throughout the entire body. It kinda sucks as well. _

Uryu woke up on top of Ichigo. He felt woozy and his head hurt. He remembered waking up in the middle of the night with Ichigo, who gave him some pills that made his headache go away, and they also made him sleepy, and rather… 'horny.' Ichigo helped take care of it but it was extremely embarrassing. It must've been some of the chemicals in the pills gave that effect. He sneezed into his elbow loudly, waking Ichigo up. "Sorry…" Uryu got off Ichigo and blew his nose in a Kleenex. Isshin and Yuzu were thorough in making sure that they dropped off anything that would be helpful.

Ichigo felt the light from the open curtain bugging his eyes. He made the curtains open only a crack and smiled, it was much better even though he liked the way the light reflected off Uryu's pale skin. He looked over to his boyfriend, who was knocking back an entire bottle of water. He was thirsty because he was sweating all night; Ichigo was so warm…

"Morning…" Ichigo put his hand to his forehead. "Can you pass me the Advil…?" He groaned.

Uryu tossed him the small red bottle and pushed his glasses up his runny nose. He grabbed a Kleenex and blew his nose again. He scratched the back of his neck to feel a rash developing there, he frowned; this was shitty…

"What's wrong babe?" Ichigo asked. Uryu pointed to the back of his neck, Ichigo lifted the hair on the back of Uryu's neck to see a reddish pink rash developing there. "Wow… Does it itch at all?"

"Nope… It's just really weird like-…" He trailed off when he felt Ichigo hugging him from behind, his arms around his boyfriend's waist. He put his fingers where Ichigo's hands met at his bellybutton, and they stayed like that for a long time, Ichigo swayed from side to side as if they were dancing to no music. He buried his nose into the silky black hair in front of him, a few inches shorter than he was. Uryu felt a little dizzy when Ichigo let him go. "What should we do?" Uryu asked, bored.

"I dunno…" Ichigo said, swishing his mouse on the desk to get the screen of his computer to turn on. He flinched at the sudden brightness so he turned the amount of light that the screen emitted. He let his eyes relax, Uryu sat in his lap, and they saw that most of his friends were online, and on facebook. Ichigo frowned, they were all messaging him at the same time, and it felt like he was being bombed with everyone asking him about why they left the party early. He chain messaged them that Uryu and he got the measles, and they had to stay inside for like, a week. They all messaged back the same thing: :(. Ichigo and Uryu felt loved.

He also received a friend request from Shuhei; he accepted it even though Ichigo suspected the tattooed male got his boyfriend high. He seemed nice enough.

"I liked Shuhei. He was nice." Uryu said quietly.

"Yeah, he was alright." Ichigo replied, he was now only messaging Renji, Tatsuki, and Orihime. Chad didn't his computer despite his was an Apple; they were like Windows for people that don't _do_ computers. "What do you think of Renji, though?"

Uryu thought for a bit. "He was nice too… but he isn't all that great at kissing."

"He told me that you were pretty talented at it…" Ichigo said, feeling Uryu's cheeks getting warm.

"Let's not speak of that…"

"Let's." Ichigo said, smiling as he talked. Uryu watched as he typed, he wondered how exactly Ichigo was so fast at typing. *The screen was still slightly glaring even though Ichigo had taken the brightness down next to nothing. He closed his eyes and leaned back into his boyfriend's chest, smiling when he felt Ichigo's heartbeat on the back of his neck. He didn't know how Ichigo wasn't squinting and glaring now, the screen seemed excessively bright to Uryu himself, maybe Ichigo wasn't as sick as him yet…

"Ichigo…" Uryu looked up.

Ichigo yawned out something incoherently.

"Aren't you tired?" He smiled faintly at the orange haired boy.

"Yeah… but these people keep gabbing at me and I can't sleep." Ichigo said. "I was having a hard time staying in bed last night." He yawned again.

"Take this." Uryu held up some sleeping pills. He grabbed another water bottle and tossed it to Ichigo.

"Nah… I will later." He said goodbye to whomever he was talking to and logged off his computer. "I think we should just read or something. You can go to sleep if ya want." Ichigo opened up Hamlet, sat on the bed, and started reading again, he felt all of Shakespeare's characters were quite relatable. He was right at the part where Hamlet was getting all depressed about his father, and understood his grief, reading on and on until he realized that he had been reading for the greater half of two hours. He was on about the 100th page; Uryu was napping with his head on his boyfriend's chest. He looked so cute and at-peace when he was asleep, it looked as if he didn't have a problem in the world. On the other hand, when he was awake, he seemed nervous and jittery. It sometimes actually got on Ichigo's nerves. Ichigo guessed maybe he would let Uryu get high with Shuhei again sometime and then relaxed-sexy-reasonably-high-Uryu would talk, instead of nervous-jittery-not-high-Uryu. Soon, Ichigo realized how horrible his little train of thought had become, so he decided to try and nap at Uryu's side.

Napping was getting difficult. The ginger slept for practically 24 hours straight, he needed _some_ form of physical activity. He tried doing push-ups and crunches, but no matter how much that worked him, he wanted _out_. _Out_ of this now very stuffy room, to _run_, breathe… He was going to go nuts if this 'measles' thing didn't go away soon. At least he had Uryu… And then a thought popped in his head. "Hey Ishida…" Ichigo leaned over his boyfriend, and pressed his lips against Uryu's gently, waking the smaller boy up quietly. "I have so mething we can do…" Ichigo said, smiling.

"I'm _not_ having sex with you." Uryu said, turning over onto his belly and putting his head on the pillow instead of Ichigo's lap, where he wanted to be. Ichigo's smile fell.

"B-b-but it's fun, is it not?" Ichigo whined. "Am I really that bad…?" He looked at Uryu with wide eyes.

Uryu huffed dramatically, as if Ichigo was burdening him, and finished Ichigo off with his mouth.

Now Ichigo lay on the bed with a satisfied look on his face, Uryu was cuddling into him; they tossed the covers over each other's body. Uryu giving him a blowjob wasn't exactly what he had in mind, he really just wanted to fuck Uryu, but he was still sated for a while. If he got bored again he could just ask. Uryu was more or less the leader, although he seemed to perfer being the bottom, he just told Ichigo what to do, and that was what happened. So if Uryu didn't want to go, then Ichigo wasn't trying to convince him, because Uryu knew if it was time or not.

He hacked at the same time as Uryu, who then sneezed. His watery eyes seemed to be just balancing the tears inside their lids, threatening to fall out each time he coughed and sneezed. Ichigo felt a sudden tickle in his nose, and sneezed into his elbow.

"Ichigo… are you crying?" Uryu asked, gazing into the pair of eyes across from him.

"No. They're just watery…" He replied, wiping off his cheeks.

"Oh, mine are too." Ishida leaned in to kiss Ichigo, but the other just fell back onto the bed, exhausted. Uryu lied down on top of him and kissed his lips, (it didn't matter if they shared germs, they were both really sick,) before sliding his tongue into Ichigo's mouth and gently sucking on his tongue. He was spontaneous like that.

Now Ichigo is normally very competitive, but he preferred to have Uryu as the dominant one when they did things like this, because he really had no idea how to make it different and interesting like  
>his boyfriend did every time they had sex. He let Uryu take over the kiss, he was surprisingly forward, and rough, not like the normal Uryu, this was sexy Uryu, the one that Ichigo wanted to see more of, because normal Uryu was all conservative and gentle. He felt Uryu's cheeks blushing against his and smiled, running his hand down his boyfriend's narrow waist.<p>

However, just as soon as Ichigo started getting in the mood Uryu got off him, just like that. He reverted to normal Uryu, as if he had a split personality, he went back to sleep and ignored Ichigo, who was trying to cuddle into him.

Uryu opening the door was what woke up Ichigo. He had all his clothes back on; it looked like he had used hand sanitizer as well. Ichigo carefully did the same, sliding his jeans on and using the hand sanitizer. It stung the cuticle of his thumb, (he had a habit of biting it;) he followed Uryu to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" Uryu asked through the door.

"What'cha doin'?" He asked creepily, smiling.

"I'm going to take a shower." Uryu said.

"Can I join?" Ichigo asked again.

"…" Ichigo heard the sound of the lock unlocking with a click, "Don't try anything." Uryu opened the door, a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Cool." Ichigo walked in to the rather large bathroom.

Here's a quick lesson on Japanese bathrooms. They always shower before taking baths. (Their walls have showerheads, and their floors have drains.) This is to prevent the bath water from getting dirty and gross.

Ichigo turned on the taps and took off his clothes. Uryu, blushing, let his towel fall to the ground; he carefully pushed it to the side so it didn't get wet from water splashing on it. He stepped into the warm water; it felt good on his dull-aching back. He felt Uryu splash him with the water that was on the floor. He smiled and splashed back, after that Uryu stood under the water, and pressed his chest against Ichigo's gently, he felt him hugging his shoulders and smiled, water trickling past his lips and onto the floor. The steam coming from the hot water of the shower was clearing up Uryu's stuffy nose, it felt a lot easier to breathe.

He sneezed quietly into his hands.

"You sneeze kinda cute." Ichigo said.

"I-I'm not sure what you mean… but okay." Uryu looked at him skeptically. Ichigo was such a weirdo… He picked up a bottle of shampoo off the floor and washed his hair, not realizing that he was using Yuzu's shampoo. Ichigo wasn't about to blame him, he was nearly blind without his glasses perched up on his nose; nonetheless it was still funny. Uryu sniffed the air. He looked at Ichigo with a straight face. "I'm using girl shampoo aren't I?"

"Yup." Ichigo nodded, pressing his lips into a straight line.

"You suck, Ichigo." Uryu rinsed the shampoo out of his hair; Ichigo smiled and helped him, combing the fluffy bubbles out of Uryu's hair with his fingers; he figured it was the least he could do after not warning Uryu that he was using shampoo for young girls. When Ichigo was satisfied that all the suds were out of Uryu's hair, he washed his own hair quickly, and then he got a bath ready, because they could use to relax a little.

The tub full, and themselves squeaky-clean, Ichigo and Uryu stepped into the tub. Ichigo even took the time to add an excessive amount of bubbles, so Uryu looked like a sheep from his ribs up. His knees were poking out of the water as well. Ichigo stepped in after him, and they chatted for a while in the hot water, until it got warm, and then slightly chilly. Uryu stood up; bubbles covered some convenient places as he helped Ichigo to stand as well. They used hand sanitizer again and scuttled back to Ichigo's room in their towels. Uryu shivered a little, until he got into a pair of fuzzy pajama pants from Ichigo and hid under the thick blankets. Ichigo did the same, and put his hand to Uryu's forehead, they were both still burning up considerably.

"Hey Ichigo…" Uryu muffled into the pillow.

"Yeah?" He looked down to his new boyfriend, who looked almost dead if it wasn't for his heavy breathing.

"Can you pass me some Tylenol?" He asked quietly.

"Sure." Ichigo said, walking across the room and grabbing some water, along with what he thought was the correct dosage, but was actually the dose for Advil.

Tylenol= 1 pill. Advil= 2 pills.

A few hours later….

Ichigo flicked on his blackberry and was texting his father.

'Dad, how many Tylenol do I give Uryu?' He asked.

'Just 1 every five hours. No more than that.'

Ichigo didn't reply; he was a little scared.

"Uryu?" Ichigo prodded the smaller male with his index finger.

"What's up?" he turned over, his eyes were droopy and he seemed a little 'out of it.' He crawled over to Ichigo's lap and sat in it lazily.

"N-nothing." He replied shortly. He kissed the top of Uryu's head and sighed, he just drugged up a guy, his _boyfriend_ to be precise, perhaps he could take advantage of it. "How are you?" Ichigo asked quietly.

"I-I'm alright…" Uryu moaned, getting comfortable in Ichigo's lap and turning around so he was facing his boyfriend, looking into his eyes. "Can we put on some music?" He questioned.

"Doesn't your head hurt?" Ichigo eyed Uryu suspiciously.

"Those pills fixed it…" He grinded up in Ichigo's lap gently, driving the ginger crazy. He felt Ichigo's hands moving up his waist, running along all of his gentle curves, he gasped and sighed when he felt Ichigo's hands go to his chest, teasing him. "S-stop." He said flatly.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo questioned quietly.

"You gave me too many pills. I know you did." Uryu gave him a dirty look. "Why?" He glared.

"It was an accident." He replied shortly. "I mixed up Tylenol and Advil… I didn't mean to."

Uryu shook his head. "W-whatever… just… b-be more careful n-next t-time." He stuttered out slowly, his head was spinning as he turned away from Ichigo and blew his nose. Ichigo coughed into his shoulder for a long time. "Wow, this kinda sucks." The black haired boy leaned back onto the bed, his head resting on the pillow and his eyes shut. He sneezed four times in a row, his watery eyes started leaking without permission, and the tears kinda just fell out. He blew his nose and tried to relax, he didn't expect to sneeze so his heart was racing and his head hurt.

"Ishida…" Ichigo said timidly, holding his index finger in the air.

"Yeah?" He turned around.

"Your nose is bleeding." Ichigo handed him a few more napkins. Uryu blushed and covered his nose with both his hands; his boyfriend had no clue why he was so embarrassed about a nosebleed, everyone gets them at least some time in life, this wasn't a big deal. He saw Uryu turning to face him.

"C-can you grab me some more tissue please?" He asked; his old one already more or less covered in blood. Ichigo wondered how sneezing got so much blood out of him. He handed him the entire box of Kleenex, not knowing how much Uryu wanted exactly. Uryu sneezed again, and sniffled, then coughed. "I hope that's it." He blew his nose and coughed some more.

"You okay?" Ichigo said, scootching closer to the only other person in the bedroom, wrapping his arms around his shoulders gently.

"I should be fine, it was just a nosebleed." Uryu looked at him questioningly.

They heard the sound of someone quietly running up the stairs. Uryu tossed the bloody napkins in the garbage bin and saw Karin poking her head in their bedroom, mask and gloves and yada yada yada. Ichigo thought she resembled dad when she was in this get-up.

"Brother, Uryu? I heard some noise. Is everything okay?" She asked loudly, it seemed her mouth opened too wide when she talked.

"Yes, Karin." He looked over to the clock; it was around three PM. "We're both fine, now get out before you're sick too." He sat up.

"Okay, Okay, I was just worried." She put her hands in the air as if she was surrendering. She backed out quietly and the door clicked shut.

"Don't you think you were being a _tad_ harsh on her?" Uryu asked, he smiled and waved her off as she exited, feeling a bit guilty for Ichigo's stern demeanor.

"Well she didn't knock. What if we were doing it? She probably wouldn't like to us fucking…" Ichigo said. "It's a habit of hers. It gets annoying."

"I guess, but you could've been a little nicer." Uryu let his eyes shut, his head hurt, and he just wanted to relax; he felt Ichigo running his hand up and down his back and smiled, falling asleep to that.

He woke back up at five; Ichigo was reading Hamlet again on his computer chair and that facebook messenger noise was getting a little annoying. He occasionally looked away from his book to type in something or another.

"Don't you think reading your assignment first would be a good idea?" Uryu eyed his assigned reading. It was some contemporary novel, written in 2011. It wasn't Ichigo's taste, he was very cultured when it came to literature, and sometimes he got up to playing chess and was talented in band class, playing the violin and guitar, (when the teacher needed a guitar.)

"But that book sucks!" Ichigo looked at the book spitefully; it looked girly with its neon green colour. He looked back to his dark blue novel.

"Could you… read it to me?" Uryu tried using a tactic that worked on most of the boys that liked him. "Please?" He said into Ichigo's neck, sending shivers down the latter's spine.

"Sh-sure." He sat down on the bed, leaning on the wall after picking up the book. He wrapped his arm around Uryu's waist and held the boy close to himself. "Do you want me to start from the beginning, or where I left off?"

"Go from where you were." Uryu said; he didn't want to set Ichigo any farther behind than how bad he was now.

"K." Ichigo began reading from where he left off and didn't notice how hungry he was until he heard Uryu's belly rumbling, then his own. Ichigo cornered the page he was on like a dog-ear, and then he called the house phone, which Karin picked up. "Is it okay if we grab something to eat?" Ichigo said.

"You can't come downstairs yet stupid!" She yelled. "Tell me what you want…" She said with a much calmer voice.

"I dunno, surprise me." Ichigo mumbled, hearing the fumbling of her searching for something to feed her brother, and her 'adoptive-brother's-friend.' She couldn't call Uryu brother, because she's heard Ichigo and him shagging all night twice, and she couldn't blame Ichigo for being attracted to Uryu.

Karin walked up the stairs with a plate, with four PB&J sandwiches stacked on top. She knocked on the door, then let herself in.

"Thanks Karin!" Ichigo said as she set the dish on the counter. "I don't know what I would've done without you. By the way, where's Yuzu?"

"She's at a friend's place... I'm not sure whom. She told dad though, so if you really wanna know ask him." She paused, and got an annoyed look on her face. "So now I gotta stay here and take care of you two."

"Sorry…" Ichigo put his hand on Uryu's sleeping leg.

"Don't apologize for getting sick, idiot." Karin glared, and then turned around. "People…." She muttered as she stormed out of the room. It made Ichigo wonder if she was just exceptionally pissy today, or if she was being nice and wanted to mask her generosity by making it seem like they were burdening her greatly, and that their needs were troubling her. However, Ichigo _did_ offer to grab stuff from downstairs.

Ichigo pinched Uryu's cheek to wake him up, again. This seemed to be the most effective method of waking up the smaller boy, it was kind of cute. He watched as the black-haired boy spotted the sandwiches.

"Eat up." Ichigo pushed the plate towards Ishida, who reluctantly took a bite but didn't eat any more until he felt Ichigo's eyes on him. "C'mon, you aren't gonna get any better if you don't eat."

Uryu ate half his sandwich, and then gave Ichigo the rest before falling back asleep. This concerned Ichigo acutely, he didn't eat the other half of Uryu's sandwich for fear that the boy would wake up again, hungry. He lied down beside Uryu and opened up his summer reading, and read aloud again just in case Uryu was listening. This passed a great deal of time before Ichigo had to go to the bathroom. He snuck off, causing Uryu to wake up.

When Ichigo returned, Uryu was sprawled on the bed staring at the ceiling. "Hey." He sat down beside Uryu, smiling. "Are you hungry? I saved your sandwich."

Uryu shook his head and stretched his arms and legs.

"Why not? You're hardly eating." Ichigo eyed him.

"My… my stomach hurts." Uryu said quickly. "Why don't you finish it?" He offered it. Maybe his stomach wasn't rumbling out of hunger, but because it hurt. The ginger believed him _enough_.

Ichigo turned away and sat on the computer chair, ignoring Uryu completely. It was around six, he went on Minecraft for a while but quickly got bored, so he sat back down and read Hamlet again, he already read five chapters of his other book, (which wasn't _quite_ as horrid as he predicted,) so he decided that he'd reward himself with the book he actually liked. He read another twenty pages before Uryu stirred. He didn't say anything.

"There's still that s-"

"I'm not hungry." Uryu knew what he was about to say. "Thank you for offering."

He was about to protest, however, Ichigo went back to his book in a hurry, not about to pester Uryu further. The boy was often intimidating, despite his small frame, but Ichigo knew that if they ever got in an argument Uryu would win somehow, he just had that ambience around him, that _miasma_. He looked back to his computer, Renji was back on facebook.

''Sup STUD?" He entered. Ichigo smiled.

"Nm… You?"

"… There's no food in Shuhei's apartment."

"Oh… That's no fun. I wonder if he just feeds on human blood..."

"It's possible…" He paused before typing. "How's Uryu?"

"We both have the measles… ;-;"

"Really? Isn't there like, a vaccine?"

"Yeah but dad made me stay from school because I had the flu."

"Shit well that sucks. I wanted to go see you guys."

Ichigo took a few seconds to look at Uryu, whom was sleep talking again. "That would be cool… Too bad, we're 'contagious'. I feel nasty. And Uryu's getting kinda pissed at me and he isn't eating…"

"Does his stomach hurt?" He questioned.

Ichigo ran his hand back through his hair. "That's what he said, but he wasn't eating before this all happened."

"Hm… Watch him carefully for a while. At least make sure he's at least eating something." Renji paused. "I gotta go. Shuhei's pissed at me; I kinda told him I was just updating my status." Ichigo smiled, and then another message popped up. "This is Shuhei, (remember that _hottie_ from the party you were at? Yeah, You do.) Don't ever let Renji use your computer. Ever."

Ichigo smirked even wider and logged off even though others were online.

"What's making you smile now? I sure as hell hope it's not this compromising position I'm in cuz I'm not moving. I'm too lazy." Uryu said; he was sprawled like a starfish on the bed in his underwear, leaving little to the imagination.

Ichigo smiled and sat on Uryu's hand; he felt it grabbing at his ass and smiled. "Perv…" He looked back to his boyfriend, who was smiling lazily as well. He lied down beside Uryu and yawned, he put his nose in his boyfriend's chest and slept like that until about 11. His sleep pattern was getting screwy because Uryu and him kept waking up in the middle of the night and he did the same to Uryu, so he napped all day and night, hardly differentiating between the two because of the lack of light in their room.

"Hey Uryu…" Ichigo kissed Uryu's neck and pinched him.

"Yeah?"

"Are you hungry? Dad just walked in. He has such horrible hours lately." Ichigo added.

"No, are you hungry?" Uryu turned to face him.

"Yeah… Can you at least _try_ to eat?" Ichigo pleaded.

"I-I guess I can try if you want me to…" Uryu smiled, the high from his pills was wearing off. It made Ichigo smile thinking about it.

Ichigo texted his father. 'Hey dad could you bring us up something to eat?'

There was no reply to the text, but they could hear Isshin rummaging through the pantry, and then running up the stairs. He had a habit of making a big rush out of things when people asked him a favor. He gave them a bag of chips and some soup, and hoped that they would get better soon.

"Thank you." Uryu and Ichigo said in unison, it was pretty weird. Ichigo heard Uryu carefully pouring two bowls of soup, he handed one to Ichigo gracefully and smiled.

"Itadakimashu." Uryu said quietly, and Ichigo nodded, blowing on his spoonful of broth. Uryu did the same and put the small spoon in his mouth, Yuzu's cooking was delectable, as always, he liked the warm soup and the feeling it made in his hollow belly. They quietly and quickly finished their dinners, and lied back down, Ichigo occasionally munching on a potato chip in bed quietly. Uryu fell back asleep, the soup made him even more tired. Ichigo even found himself yawning, probably because Uryu was, but he still felt tired so he closed his eyes and tried to relax, but Uryu's constant sleep muttering kept him up; he groaned and covered Uryu's mouth with his hand to keep him quiet, and they fell asleep like that.

Another bonus story. Sorry…

_The sleep muncher_

Uryu woke up sneezing and coughing again, this sickness was really getting old. He looked over to Ichigo, who appeared to be chewing in his sleep. _'Is he dreaming about eating?' _He wondered, watching Ichigo sleep-chew. It was cute, but Uryu wondered if he could mess with Ichigo a little. "Hey Ichigo, look, its spaghetti!" Uryu whispered into the other's ear. He heard Ichigo starting to chew again, and snickered. "Rice ball?" Uryu leaned in again, hearing Ichigo chew loudly now. "Brussels' sprouts." Uryu said flatly, he heard Ichigo stop chewing, and quietly giggles, he hated that cabbage as well. "Waffles?" He heard Ichigo starting to chew again, so he added blueberries. The chewing stopped. "You don't like blueberries?" He saw Ichigo nod in his sleep and smiled, "How about strawberries." He heard Ichigo's 'eating' continue, but he was getting tired again so he snuggled in close to Ichigo, underneath the blanket, which Ichigo had tucked him tightly inside. He really hoped that Ichigo didn't run out of waffles any time soon.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

_-Yay! I got some reviews! Made my day! I'm a review whore! EXTRA-SUPER-SPECIAL thanks to Gemini24 for his/her helpful and faithful feedback, and to all the other bros that reviewed as well! Makes me sooo happy!_

_Kleptomaniacs are people that are addicted to stealing/scamming things off people. _

Uryu's eyes shot open, he felt something in his throat so he ran to the bathroom as fast as he could, (forgetting hand-sanitizer,) and retched in the toilet violently, feeling disoriented afterwards. He heard stirring in Karin and Yuzu's bedroom, he wiped off his lips and flushed, the toilet always seemed so much louder because it was so early, Ishida hoped he didn't wake anyone up. Walking back to the bedroom after washing his hands and face, Uryu saw Ichigo staring off into space in his bedroom, a blank, lifeless stare.

"Good morning Ichigo." Uryu sat down on the bed.

"Morning." Ichigo said vacantly.

"How do you feel?" He sat on top of Ichigo, and leaned so he was looking his boyfriend in the eye.

"I'm fine, although I don't think you can say the same for yourself." Ichigo saw a small smile on Uryu's lips.

"Was I really that loud?" Uryu looked a little worried.

"Normally I would be mad at you for making that kind of noise in the morning, but I'm not gonna get mad at you for throwing up." Ichigo leaned up and pecked Uryu's cheek, he smelt good.

"Thanks, I really hope I didn't rouse anyone from their sleep…" He didn't hear any more movement in the bedroom beside theirs, so he presumed that the two girls were still asleep. Uryu lied beside Ichigo, a small frown on his face; he wasn't feeling too hot right at the moment. Ichigo turned and looked at the boy beside him, noticing the scowl on Uryu's face. His head was resting on his hands on the mattress and he was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

Ichigo felt weird, like he was dizzy, his vision was a little fuzzy, and his stomach hurt, he was getting tired of being sick; he wanted to run outside and be with his friends instead of being bedridden and miserable. At least he still had his Uryu, who was being rather lethargic, lying on the bed, and staring at nothing, playing with his hair.

"Uryu?" Ichigo said quietly. The boy turned to acknowledge his boyfriend speaking. "Are you sad or something?"

Uryu shook his head slightly.

"Why do you look so sad then?" He gazed into Uryu's dark eyes.

"I guess I am sad…" He looked back into Ichigo's brown orbs; both of their eyes dimmed by poor health, Uryu's normally intense irises looked nearly black. It gave him a blank look. "Maybe it's because I'm sick."

"Yeah, this is kinda getting me down as well. How about, as soon as we're better again, we go out for dinner and hang out with friends?" Ichigo leaned in towards Uryu, who was looking at him dreamily. Their lips met for what seemed like a short amount of time, before Uryu sneezed into his shoulder, destroying the moment.

"That sounds good." He said after blowing his nose. He felt some crust forming under his eye so he wiped it off with a different paper napkin, scowling at the cursed 'eye-crusties', they were pretty nasty. He looked over to Ichigo, who was picking at his own eye as well. It was dark in the room, the sepia lamp letting off just enough light for them to tell what the other was doing, it hurt their eyes whenever the door opened, letting the light of day shine through. "I'm sick of being sick." He grimaced deeper.

"Me too." Ichigo frowned as well, he wiped his eyes and took a Tylenol, and the dreary aching in his body wasn't bothering him further. He squeezed his eyes shut at the bitter taste of the pill, he was quite accustomed to taking pills from swallowing the mod-soul, but it didn't taste as gross as the pill he just took. "Are you hungry?" Ichigo asked, eyeing the half-full bag of chips that he left on the side of his bed.

"No, not really." Uryu's stomach vocalizing contradicted what he just said.

"Are you _sure_?" Ichigo pulled out a chip and pushed it in Uryu's wide yawning mouth. The boy clamped down on it, slightly annoyed by Ichigo's forwardness. "See? You feel better already."

Uryu bit back the chip, along with the snappy retort he thought of. "I guess…" He stared at his feet for a while, before reluctantly leaning in for another chip and kissing Ichigo's lips before they could say anything about him being hungry, but found him making the kiss last a lot longer than he himself wanted it to. Ichigo could taste the salt from the chips on Uryu's tongue and smirked.

After a few more seconds, Uryu pulled back, breaking their lengthy kiss, he was out of breath. However, he leaned his panting mouth back into Ichigo's and tackled him back onto the bed, inwardly giggling when he felt Ichigo flip him so he was on the bottom again. He pinned Uryu's wrists to the bed and kissed his neck before returning his attention to his boyfriend's soft pink lips. It was the strawberry who broke their kiss first this time; he wanted it to last a great deal longer, but he heard someone walking towards their room. The door swung open, revealing Yuzu standing in her pajamas, her eyes were barely open to see her brother on top of Uryu, their faces less than an inch apart.

Yuzu looked at her feet and spoke quickly; she didn't mean to intrude on anything. "Nii-san I made some breakfast but I really didn't expect you two to be awake so I didn't knock sorry. I'll bring up breakfast." She backed out swiftly, shutting the door behind her, her cheeks were deep pink and she couldn't seem to get that image out of her head. Wide eyed in pure shock, she put a few pancakes on two plates, along with a bottle of syrup and a bowl of fruit.

"Poor girl…" Uryu deadpanned, sitting back up when Ichigo got off him.

Ichigo sat there with the same blank face as Uryu. "I think Karin gave her a yaoi. If that's the case, she's seen it all." He said flatly.

Uryu started chewing on his fingernails awkwardly, having a hard time picturing Yuzu with porn in her small hands. He smiled at the thought though, in this time and day, you don't know what people do in their spare time, and he figured he could read Yuzu like a book. Apparently not.

It didn't seem like Uryu to bite his nails off; however, the black-haired boy had a truly exhausting list of bad habits that Ichigo didn't know about. He only recently quit smoking, he used to do a variety of drugs that people told him would help him lose more weight, he used to gamble on things often, he sometimes even made bets with himself subconsciously, argued often, was good at manipulating people, a bad pessimist, and a former kleptomaniac. He tended to fidget, and stuttered when accused of something, but Ichigo knew that. This is only a portion of the list named Dumb Shit That Uryu Does/Did.

"It feels like this will never go away…" Uryu flopped back onto the bed lazily, his hair fluttering down beside him. He hid under the warm blanket, but his relaxation didn't last long as Yuzu walked in, (sure to knock this time,) along with her elaborate breakfast.

"Aw thanks Yuzu!" Ichigo smiled at the delicious looking breakfast his gloved and masked sister made. She sneezed. "I sure hope you aren't sick…" Ichigo said guiltily.

"I'm not, there was just a tickle in my nose," she reassured, but Ichigo was still a little worried, even though he was there to comfort her when she was being vaccinated. "Eat up. Sister's orders."

"Thanks." Uryu said, smiling. She smiled back, taking the old plates from their sandwiches as she walked out the room.

Ichigo dug into the breakfast quickly, while his boyfriend took his time to enjoy the food, quietly biting into it and watching Ichigo hork it all down as if something was compelling him to scoff his food like there was no tomorrow. Of course, Ichigo finished before Uryu and put his dish down on the nightstand, his belly full. He took an extra blueberry or two out of the fruit bowl and enjoyed the small spheres, observing Uryu. He looked as if he had an eating disorder, (sometimes Ichigo felt like asking him if he did,) he had this ritual of taking a tiny piece of whatever he was eating and putting it in his mouth, and chewing for a long time as if he was eating the entire dish at once. Now Ichigo wasn't about to say he ate like a normal person, (he just _elaborately_ displayed that he didn't,) but Ishida was beginning to worry him. He felt Uryu's cold eyes on him.

"Why are you watching me eating?" He asked monotonically.

"D-d… I don't know." He stuttered out moronically, Uryu's eyes seemed oddly sharp right now; they were cutting into him. He was scary…

"_Please,_ stop. I can't eat with you staring at me." He replied dismissively.

"O-okay." Ichigo twiddled his thumbs, staring off into space, realizing how bored he was. His facebook bleeped and blooped, but he didn't care. Ichigo didn't want to deal with people now. The wall seemed a lot more agreeable than whatever _Renji_ had to say.

When he heard Uryu's plates clinking on the other dishes on the nightstand, he returned his gaze to him.

"Can we read some more of your books?" Uryu asked timidly. Ichigo nodded and sat against the wall, pulling out Hamlet instead of his assigned reading. "Can I sit in your lap?"

"No, Uryu." Ichigo replied, opening the book to where he left off.

"Hm… can I have my head in your lap?" He suggested.

"Yes." Ichigo felt Uryu's head resting in his knees.

'_Did you think I was being dirty?'_ Uryu mentally questioned.

They read for about an hour before Ichigo heard Uryu's snoring.

The last few sentences Ichigo read:

_Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?_

_Ophelia: No, my lord._

_Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap? _

_Ophelia: Ay, my lord. _

_Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters? _

Ichigo smiled at this 'classy' humour; the book made a dull clicking noise when he snapped it shut, hoping the sudden noise would awaken Uryu. It didn't. He sighed and let Uryu nap, smiling when he heard Uryu saying something in his sleep, he didn't bother to listen in because he saw Uryu's hand go down his pants. Ichigo presumed that whatever he was dreaming about had to be interesting, but for Uryu's sake, he put a blanket over where his hand was just in case one of his little sisters walked in and saw the boy 'rewarding' himself. Then again, Ichigo wasn't excessively anxious of Yuzu not knocking anymore.

He heard Uryu's breathing hitch, he looked down to see Uryu with a deep blush on his face, and presumed that the boy had finished himself off. He peeked under the blanket just to be sure, and sure enough, Uryu's underwear was a mess. He would wait until his boyfriend was awake to relieve him of his dirty garments. Responsibly, Ichigo re-opened his assigned reading and thumbed through a few chapters of that as well, until his Uryu stirred once again. He looked up to Ichigo with a blush on his face.

"Do you need some new clothes?" Ichigo spoke first, to break the awkwardness. Uryu nodded quietly; Ichigo stood up and lent him some new underwear and fresh pajamas for them both. They changed silently, not looking at each other.

Lying back down on the bed, Ichigo felt comfy in his fluffy pajama shirt and pants. He normally reserved such warm clothing for winter, when the weather was bitter and sleety, but they were both feeling chills despite their high fevers. It was another shitty part of being under the weather; their bodies seemed to have bipolar disorder.

"Thanks…" Uryu cuddled in close to Ichigo, feeling warmth glowing off the larger boy.

"No problem." Ichigo felt his eyes drooping, his boyfriend made him sleepy somehow, perhaps it was because he was catching Uryu's yawns, or it was just that he was tired and he was going to sleep because Uryu was. He gave a long, deep yawn before shutting his eyes and squeezing Uryu tightly in his arms, they didn't wake up until around six PM.

XOXO

Uryu heard some noises coming from the computer. He looked to where Ichigo used to be, there was a pillow in his former spot. He looked over to the source of the noise that awakened him. Ichigo was glued to the computer, reading something.

"Hey Ichigo, what'cha doin'?" Uryu stood up.

"I'm looking up a word I found in here." He tossed Hamlet to Uryu.

"Oh." He flipped through the book, there were no illustrations, and the text was small and in poetry form, the beautiful writings and wit of Shakespeare gracing the reprint on cheap pulp paper. "I didn't expect you to be as tasteful as you are…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ichigo turned to face Uryu.

"Well at first you kinda came off as a jerk to me… You also dress kinda weird…" He said quietly.

Ichigo thought back to the first day that Uryu arrived, it seemed like a long time ago, but in reality, he had been here in Ichigo's home for only just over a week now. "Yeah I guess… Sorry."

'_I guess?'_ Uryu smiled mentally, as in is his head; he wasn't smiling like a 'mental person'.

"Well I don't care anymore; you're so good to me now so it doesn't matter." Uryu went to sit in Ichigo's lap, watching him as he typed and read.

"I'm good to you?" He asked, not looking at Uryu.

"Of course. You made me a sandwich, you let me sleep on your bed, and you love me-…" Uryu was about to go on but he was distracted by a sour look on Ichigo's face. "What's wrong?"

Ichigo sped to the bathroom, practically throwing Uryu off his lap. He slammed the door shut behind him and retched into the toilet, feeling a little disoriented afterwards, barely hearing Uryu's soft voice asking if he was okay. He flushed, so the other boy just let himself in.

"Ichigo?" Uryu kneeled down to where Ichigo was sitting, wiping stuff off his lips.

"Yeah?" He looked Uryu in the eye with a truly depressed glint in his eye. Uryu didn't say anything in reply so he stood up and helped his boyfriend to stand as well; Ichigo felt very dizzy and leaned on Uryu slightly. He grabbed his toothbrush and tried to get the taste of throw-up out of his mouth, which wasn't an easy feat, but he eventually achieved it with Uryu hugging him from behind. With the nasty taste and smell out of his mouth, they both returned to their bedroom after washing their hands.

"Can we read some more?" Uryu held up the gay looking book. It literally looked like a homosexual man threw up on it. Lime green with purple lettering, the author's name was obviously a flashy made-up pen name and she tried to make a dystopian novel, but it was light-hearted and weak in words. The way the cover looked made Ichigo wonder why he chose it in the first place, surely the other books he could've picked looked more interesting, maybe it was because all the others pounced on the better books and left him to choose between Twilight and the crappy book that he forgot the name of that Uryu was holding.

"Sure…" Ichigo wondered why not? Uryu seemed to like being read to, even if it was a sad excuse for a book like the one that he chose for some reason. Right now, Twilight strangely seemed like a better choice. He tried to find the place where he left off, and read a few chapters to Uryu, who fell asleep quickly. He was totally lost because he fell asleep a few minutes after Ichigo began reading, and he finished at least five chapters when Uryu was napping, but the boy didn't care, he was just trying to get Ichigo to finish his summer reading. Ichigo would thank him later.

The next few days dragged on and on, those days turned into a week, they lied in the bedroom and read a few books until Ichigo woke up one morning feeling great. His eyes weren't crusty, and he was breathing easily with a shit-eating grin on his face. He was free. However, he couldn't say the same for his Uryu, who was lying in bed asleep, coughing and sneezing here and there. Ichigo let him sleep, and got changed into his day clothes, out of the fuzzy pajamas that he loved so…

He walked downstairs into the morning light that shone through the window, to see Yuzu glaring at him.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked; his sister had a pout on her face.

"Go back up to Uryu." She pointed to the stairs.

"Why? I was just gonna grab something to eat…" Ichigo pointed to the fridge.

"I'll make something to eat, you spend time with him." She was still pointing to the stairs.

"But what if I get sick again?"

"You can't get measles twice. Daddy even said so." She crossed her arms.

"But I don't wanna…" Ichigo whined like a kid to his mommy.

"Too bad. He needs you." Yuzu gave him, the _look._

Ichigo slunk back to his room like a dog that been struck. Yuzu smirked victoriously, she knew what Uryu needed and that was Ichigo, he couldn't just leave Uryu there alone to rot in the bedroom until he was healthy again.

He carefully opened the door to see Uryu coughing on the bed, his eyes were still watery and brittle, and he was developing more rashes on his sleeping body. He put his hand on Uryu's forehead and it was still burning and clammy. "Are you hungry for anything?" Ichigo asked quietly when Uryu's dull eyes opened slowly. He offered him some water and pills.

"Yeah… Sort of." Uryu's quiet and scratchy voice mewled. Ichigo felt guilty for trying to go back downstairs.

"Well I think Yuzu was gonna make some waffles if you want some." Ichigo traced his thumb along Uryu's chapped lips.

"Okay." He perked up a little at the thought of waffles. The ginger smiled and returned downstairs, Yuzu had two plates of blueberry waffles with syrup ready for him.

"Go eat with Uryu." She said, adding a please when Ichigo took the plates. She occasionally relished the amount of control she had over Ichigo, she could tell dad, or Karin, or she could blackmail him with Uryu, who was her main tool now. She could guilt trip Ichigo into anything when it came to Ishida. It was funny in a cruel way.

He opened the door to see that Uryu had whacked his nose on his knee when he sneezed, and smiled slightly when his boyfriend put his hands on his snout cutely.

"That's not funny." Uryu was smiling though, pinching his nose until he reached a Kleenex, cleaning up his second nosebleed that week.

"That was funny. You just have no sense of humour." Ichigo set a plate in between Uryu's crossed legs, and sat down with his own.

"So you're not sick anymore?" Uryu asked after swallowing a tiny mouthful of waffle.

"Nope."

"It's a good thing you can't get measles twice. I think if I wouldn't have you here with me then I'd never get better." Uryu smiled faintly, cutting another small piece of waffle off with his fork and knife, and then chewing slowly.

Ichigo felt guilty yet again. He felt that ditching Uryu for a second was a good idea; thankfully, Yuzu stopped him before he ran off. Sometimes that girl was so scary… Ichigo stared at Uryu, who was still chewing on the tiny bite. Mildly irritated, he snatched Uryu's fork out of his hand, took his plate, picked the smaller boy up and set him in his lap, and then cut a larger piece of waffle and pushed it past the boy's lips.

"Now chew." Ichigo demanded. Uryu, who was now a little shocked, chewed the chunk of waffle a little faster than usual; he was scared that Ichigo was mad at him for something. He swallowed, and felt Ichigo cutting another piece of waffle. He had his mouth open for Ichigo this time; he didn't want to get more syrup on his lips than he already did. This went on until his waffles were all gone, he wasn't used to eating at that pace so it came as a little shock when he looked down to his plate to see that he had already finished, in less than twenty minutes. "What makes you eat slowly anyways?" Ichigo asked as he put the plates on the nightstand.

"I dunno…" He said quietly, eating a blueberry that fell to his lap. They sat there for a long time, until Uryu saw his boyfriend sitting there with a sad look on his face. "Ichigo?"

The ginger blinked, he zoned out for a while. He looked at Uryu. "What's up?"

"Nothing… you just looked a little sad." Uryu scootched towards Ichigo on his butt, he was happy that he had someone to talk to again.

"Oh, I was just thinking." Ichigo excused.

"What were you thinking about? Was it by chance… _Me_?" Uryu said sarcastically.

"Actually, yes." Ichigo replied, yawning.

"Oh. Cool. Am I interesting to think about?" He leaned into Ichigo.

"Nope."

"Oh." Uryu smiled. Ichigo started nibbling on his cuticle again nervously. "What's wrong?"

"I feel kinda bad even though I'm not sick anymore." He replied blankly.

"Why would you feel bad?" Ishida questioned.

"It's like a gnawing feeling at my stomach." His voice seemed airy.

"Did you do something that you regret?"

"Yeah kinda." Ichigo yawned again. He regretted almost leaving Uryu inside to talk with no one.

Uryu coughed before speaking. "Well maybe doing something good will make you feel better-"

Ichigo hugged Uryu tightly, spontaneously. The boy, who was a bit startled by Ichigo's sudden activeness, hugged back, albeit a lot gentler than Ichigo was. He felt Ichigo kissing his neck and smiled, wondering if Ichigo's sudden action was the good deed he advised, or if Ichigo was just being… 'Nice'. They stayed there for a while, Uryu sneezed once or twice, and making sure he had a Kleenex to sneeze into, there was still a slight chance that Ichigo would get sick again, and he wasn't going to abuse the fact that the chance was small.

After a long while, Ichigo heard his facebook go off.

"You should check to see who it is." Uryu advised.

Ichigo sat on the computer chair and invited Uryu to sit in his lap. Renji was messaging him.

'What's up?' Renji typed into the chat-box.

'The sky.'

'Never would've guessed.' Renji added, 'Shuhei got the measles.'

'Well that sucks; you should take care of him.'

'That doesn't sound like much fun…'

'Would you expect him to do the same for you?'

'Okay…' Renji added a sad face. 'But if I get sick he's my bitch until I get better. -.-'

'XD' Ichigo felt Uryu kiss his chin. 'I gotta go, Uryu is still sick… :'( '

'Okay. Tell him I say hi. Byeeeeeeee!'

Ichigo facepalmed at Renji's cheesy response. 'Bye!'

Uryu smiled when he felt Ichigo kiss his forehead, his cheeks were a little pink, he didn't know why. "Where's Isshin?"

"He's at work; he said that he'd be home at around eight." Ichigo stood up and carried Uryu to the bed, plopping him down and sitting beside him.

"Oh." The black haired boy said, staring at the ceiling and yawning. "Thanks for taking care of me Ichigo."

"It's not a problem." Ichigo lied back and let Uryu's head rest on his torso; he really hoped that Uryu would get better soon; it had almost been a week since he got sick, and it was July 2nd now. "How are you feeling?" He turned to face Uryu, whose eyes were drooping slightly.

"I'm feeling a lot better than I used to, but I'm still-…" Uryu sneezed, "I'm still feeling under the weather."

"I see. I hope you're better soon." Ichigo looked at the clock; it was still around ten. Uryu coughed into his shoulder and wiped his watery eyes, he hated looking like he wanted to cry when he was happy as he could be with Ichigo at his side. "So do you want me to read to you again? The crappy book is almost done."

"Sure." Uryu snuggled up close to Ichigo; he had a Kleenex ready in case he sneezed, and a bottle of water. Ichigo began reading to Ishida, who fell asleep almost instantly. He finished his summer reading; when Uryu heard Ichigo stop reading, he opened his eyes. "Thank you for reading to me…" He looked up to Ichigo, who appeared bored and tired. "Oh come on, that book wasn't entirely dreadful…" Uryu tried to say this with a straight face.

"Meh." Was all Ichigo had to say. He tucked Uryu and himself in the bed, opening up Hamlet; he was almost finished that book as well. He started reading to Uryu, who stayed awake the whole time, as he finished his book. He didn't read too fast or too slow, and Uryu was willing to listen to his words all day, they were practically squishing against each other as Ichigo had his arm around Uryu's waist, pulling him closer and closer, the boy was almost having a hard time breathing. When the book was finally finished, it was half past twelve. Yuzu went out with her friends, so Ichigo concluded that he had to make lunch even though he was horrible at cooking, and even worse at cleaning up after himself after cooking. "Hey, I'm gonna go to the store to pick up something to eat."

"O-okay." Uryu gazed up to him with wide eyes.

"You gonna be okay here on your own?" Ichigo looked back down to him.

"Y-yeah but don't take too long."

"Okay. Don't do anything stupid." He exited, leaving Uryu lonely in bed.

Even though Ishida would never admit it, he was really lonesome and bored when people weren't around, that was probably why he wandered around the streets with some other misguided teens that ran away from home. Some of them took up selling themselves like Uryu, others just got in with gangs and trouble, and he knew a few people that were in jail right now. He looked out the window to see Ichigo speed walking to the store in his hoodie, it was lightly drizzling outside, Uryu, who normally loved the rain, was getting a little sick of the grey skies and showers that weren't normally a characteristic of summers in Karakura town. They were normally entirely bright and blue-skied; sometimes there were even heat waves where people spent most of their time in the ocean waters and on boats. He huffed, being sick made it even worse; he knew that even if he got better today the weather would still be miserable.

He coughed, and drank some more water, it felt good on his parched mouth, and even though it wasn't particularly cold, it was quite refreshing. He heard the front door open and eagerly washed his hands and looked to see who was walking in, smiling when he saw Ichigo taking off his shoes and holding a bag of cup-noodles. Uryu loved instant noodles, but they were so fattening that his maximum consumption was at the very most one cup a week. He snuck back to the dark room when Ichigo was walking back up the stairs, and sat on the bed, sneezing and coughing again.

"Are you hungry?" Ichigo poked his head in.

"Yeah, a little bit." He smiled slightly.

"I bought some noodles…" Ichigo backed out of the room and went downstairs, making the lazy food in the microwave. He hated cooking. Hate being an understatement to the absolute loathing that Ichigo had towards cooking anything. He waited for the microwave to beep, took some forks to eat their noodles with, and ran back up the stairs to Uryu, who was looking at some of the books that Karin dropped off for him. They were all things that he had already read, aside from a few reference books, so he opened one of those and started to read. Ichigo handed him the cup of noodles.

"Thank you." Uryu and Ichigo ate in silence, they had nothing much to say. There was nothing new going on, and it seemed a little lonely in their bedroom because they weren't talking. Neither of them had the courage to just bring something up either.

When they were finished, Ichigo took the Styrofoam noodle-cups downstairs and threw them in the garbage, he felt a little down in heart because it felt like Uryu was ignoring him, and he felt guilty for not trying to talk to him. He sat on the couch, thinking about what he would do to try to make Uryu feel a little better, the poor boy had the measles, and it was bad enough for him already.

Walking back up the stairs quietly, Ichigo heard Uryu coughing and sneezing again, this time it sounded quiet, but that may have been because he was hearing it through a door, or, was it possible that Uryu was getting a little better? That would be great.

He walked into the room to see Uryu blowing his nose; he didn't look as pale as he used to and his nose didn't sound as stuffed up, maybe he really was getting better.

"You're looking better already." Ichigo said. "Maybe it was because you had some junk food in you."

Uryu smiled up at him, "Don't make me fat now."

"I won't." Ichigo kissed Uryu's cheek and sat down beside him, a small smile on his face. "So do you feel any better now?"

"Yeah, I feel pretty good, compared to last week…" Uryu stared at the wall, he felt a lot better than he used to, and some color was returning to his face. "I think I'll be better after some sleep…" They both looked at the digital alarm clock; it was about 2 PM, he wouldn't be able to fall asleep at that hour. He sneezed and coughed, it made his lungs hurt, so he grabbed a water bottle and chugged it all back.

"So…"

"So…"

They sat there, not sure what to do next, it was boring in their dark bedroom, Ichigo felt like opening up the large window but it would hurt Uryu's sore eyes, he'd probably complain anyways.

The rest of the day went by slowly, all Uryu seemed to want to do was nap and read, so when Uryu was fast asleep at around five, Ichigo watched the rainfall while he stood on the balcony, waiting for Ishida to get up again. However, Uryu was still asleep when Ichigo finally came back in at around 11; he was sprawled across the bed with his hand down his pants, it made Ichigo snicker to himself. He checked his facebook once more before going to bed, there was supposed to be another big party going on at Tatsuki's house the day after tomorrow, it made him hope that Uryu would be healthy enough to go by then.

The next morning, Uryu felt something poking into his thigh, looking over, he saw that Ichigo was pressing against him with his midsection. He blushed and moved away from Ichigo, but the ginger just pulled him closer and closer, liking the warmth that came off Uryu.

He then realized how great he felt. He was breathing easily and his eyes didn't hurt when he opened the curtain, but they took some time to adjust to the sudden light that flooded their bedroom because he was used to sitting in the dark. His eyes weren't crusty and watery, his body didn't hurt as much, and the rash on his neck was already shrinking down; he gave a small yawn and cuddled into Ichigo, who was starting to become aware of his surroundings, the brightness in the room and Uryu beside him. His eyes opened slowly, they didn't like all the brightness in the room when they just woke up, but it was refreshing to see Uryu's face in the light, instead of the dark sepia colours that their room was set in when the light hurt their eyes.

Ishida put on his glasses quietly, not realizing that Ichigo was awake, and watching him. He took off his pajama pants and replaced them with his tight jeans, and then he checked in Ichigo's drawers for a shirt to wear, pulling out a dark green one that was inside out, he fixed it and saw that the shirt read, "I'm a keeper." He slid it on, the shirt fit him a lot better than all of Ichigo's other shirts, perhaps it was tight on Ichigo so he didn't wear it anymore, that would explain why it was at the bottom of Ichigo's drawers. He looked over to Ichigo; he blushed when he realized that Ichigo was probably watching him the whole time.

"G' morning." He said, walking over to his boyfriend and looking for a new shirt as well. "I have a bunch of shirts that don't fit me anymore, you can have them."

"O-okay." Uryu noticed that the shirt he was wearing smelt a lot like Ichigo, he smiled, Ichigo smelt good, like cinnamon in a way. "Thanks."

"No problem. That looks better on you anyways."

Uryu blushed furiously, he didn't know how respond to Ichigo's compliment. The other boy tugged his shirt off, it was a little sweaty from him sleeping in it, he found a deep blue shirt and slid it on, and they both walked down the stairs to see Isshin was still home.

"Good morning." Uryu said, smiling faintly. He was happy that he wasn't sick anymore, in fact, he almost forgot what the kitchen looked like.

"Morning!" Isshin said, he didn't turn to face them.

Yuzu, Karin, and Isshin looked like they were packing for something. They had many water bottles, and snacks, along with two large blankets along with some bags full of clothing. There was also two tents, with some roasting sticks and other supplies that could only mean one thing: camping.

"Dad?" Ichigo knew what was going on. Isshin and Yuzu had organized another road trip without consulting Ichigo.

"We're going camping!" Isshin and Yuzu said in unison.

"Oh joy…"

"Better pack some clothing!" Yuzu shooed her brother and Uryu back up the stairs, where they too got some bags of clothes packed.

"Don't act so depressed Ichigo, it sounds like fun!" Uryu stuffed his bag full of clothes.

Ichigo gave him a straight face. "Not when you're with Isshin… He makes you go into the woods and crap and I always get ticks…"

"Hm… Well if you wanna be crusty all the time then okay. It's better than being sick." Uryu put his hands on his hips.

"Well I guess, but remember, we were gonna go on our date today?" Ichigo reminded him.

"We can call this a date." Uryu smiled. "We can spend some time together, you know, you and me." He walked towards Ichigo and hugged him. "Where are we going to camp anyways?"

"I don't know for sure… Yuzu's getting all excited so I'm going to assume that it's a lake. She loves swimming." Ichigo packed some swimming trunks as well. He tossed Uryu a pair that was far too small for him himself.

"I like swimming too…" Uryu's small shopping bag was almost bursting; he managed to fit most of his clothes in there though, plus some of the shirts that Ichigo gave him. Ichigo led him back down the stairs where they loaded their stuff into the back of the car, along with a small blanket that they'd use for the ride. Uryu turned around to see Karin carrying a load of water that would normally be far too large for a girl her age, but she seemed to be carrying it with exceptional ease; Yuzu followed her with the roasting sticks and some food that they'd be able to cook over the fire.

Ichigo walked back inside to see Isshin smiling brightly, holding some fishing rods, confirming that they were going to a lake. Ichigo made his best effort to look at least vaguely excited, carrying the heaviest things to the car with a deceivingly strong Uryu to help.

All their things were packed now, so Ichigo stretched and yawned, it was still only quarter-to nine. "So when are we gonna hit the road?" Ichigo asked Isshin, whom was still smiling with his fishing hat on his head.

"Eh… at around ten. We'll be driving for about twelve hours though, and we need to stop for a night, so we could get going now." Isshin smiled sheepishly, he knew Ichigo hated car rides with a passion, and this was probably the longest one that he had been on in a _long_ while.

"Okay…" Ichigo put his shoes on, "We should get going now then, we don't need to waste any time." He walked out the door with Uryu at his side, he told his little sisters to hop in the car. Isshin followed with a relieved look on his face, he predicted a much worse reaction from his son.

Isshin started the car, and they made their way down the long road.


	10. Chapter 10

_Review the shit outta me!_

Chapter 10/ Road Trip!

Ichigo was twiddling his thumbs in middle seat of the car with Yuzu to his left, Uryu to his right, the former was sleeping, and the latter was looking out the window to the grassy plains; Ichigo was resisting the urge to play with his glossy black hair. Karin was sitting shotgun beside her father, sometimes they even spoke with each other; it was rare for Karin to talk with her father, because she thought he was a little annoying and sometimes too flashy. Ichigo pulled a water bottle from the trunk and drank some of it, and then offered it to Uryu, who kindly refused and looked back out the window of the car, his azure eyes following a tree as they passed it down the road. None of them were speaking until Yuzu woke up and started singing with Isshin, and Karin reluctantly joined in with them; Ichigo liked Karin's voice, it was smooth and even though her normal speaking voice was mumbling and growly, her singing was clear like a bell. Still, he put on his iPod because they were singing a cheesy pop song that he hated; he turned it on as loud as it would go and zoned out, but he saw Uryu looking at him pleadingly, so he took one ear bud out and popped it in Uryu's ear behind his hair; they fell asleep that way. In about an hour, the two woke up so they cuddled in the back seat, hoping that Isshin wasn't watching them from the rear view mirror.

Uryu felt Ichigo's hand on his inner thigh underneath the blanket; he blushed and turned away, it was embarrassing how Ichigo could make him want it so badly so easily. Uryu looked at the blanket that they were snuggling under, it was pink, and had Hello Kitty faces patterned on it in the foreground, Uryu thought it was cute and he kinda wanted to draw Hello Kitty now. Thankfully, he packed paper, so he pulled out a pencil from his pocket and grabbed paper from the back, and began to sketch out her face masterfully as if he had drawn the cute icon many, many times. Yuzu watched him draw, he was very good in her opinion, he traced the pencil gracefully over the white paper, and when he was satisfied, he went over it again with a sharpie marker that he also had in his pocket.

"Hey Uryu-san, can I colour that in?" Yuzu asked; she packed crayons.

"Yeah, sure."

She reached in to the back and pulled out a 64 pack of crayons, smiling when Uryu passed her the paper with a hardcover book so she could shade in the cat. She always stayed in the lines and she coloured with a consistent direction, always diagonal to the right. The black haired boy smiled at her careful work, she was quite dedicated to being neat, and the drawing looked great.

When she was finished she handed it back to Uryu, who looked it over with a smile on his face, he loved it. "That looks great Yuzu. You should keep it." He handed it back to Yuzu, who accepted it with a warm smile, she put it back into her small suitcase in a pocket that would keep the paper safe and crinkle free, and then Uryu started doing another drawing of the car that they were driving in, all from his keen memory.

"That looks good Uryu." Ichigo leaned over his shoulder; Uryu could feel his breath on his neck as he drew, it sent shivers down his spine when Ichigo nibbled on his ear, his body tensed up, he then sighed and relaxed when he felt Ichigo's hand on his back, running up and down his backbone. He leaned back and shut his eyes gently, Ichigo pulled the blanket over their shoulders, and traced lines over the crotch of Uryu's pants, making him blush and sigh, he bit his lower lip; until he couldn't take it anymore whispered "Stop," in his boyfriend's ear, letting out a breath of relief, he almost jizzed himself, and that would've been the end of him. Uryu resumed drawing the car, Ichigo's arm wrapped around his waist as he whispered that they were probably going to a hotel tonight so they might get a separate room, that would mean they would finally get some alone time, and Uryu knew what that meant…

They neared the next town, it was small, and looked a little under-developed, almost like a ghost town, they pulled up to a convenience store where Karin and Yuzu hopped out immediately. "So who wants something to eat?" Isshin turned back to see Ichigo and Uryu snuggling together in the back, they stared at him, wide-eyed.

"S-sorry Mr. Isshin." Uryu said, pulling away from Ichigo, who snapped his arm back to his lap and blushed deeply.

"What are you saying sorry for? By the way, it's just Isshin." He opened the door and stretched, he liked the fresh air in his nose.

Uryu reluctantly hopped out of the car, and held his hand out to help Ichigo out, the car was short, so Ichigo hit his head on the roof of the car when he stood up often. "You get to sit in the middle now." He patted Uryu on the head and led him into the small store, where a woman waved to them. Uryu closely followed Ichigo, who went and found some chocolate milk from them both; his boyfriend went up and paid for him and Uryu, who chipped in the change from his pocket. They went back to the car and opened up the half-litre jug. Ichigo took the first sip, then Uryu, and they took turns until Uryu said he was full. Ichigo screwed the cap back on before the rest of his family returned, Yuzu was holding two Danishes, and she got in the car and handed the delicious pastries to her brother and Uryu.

"Dad said you guys should actually eat something for breakfast." Yuzu said before Isshin and Karin got in the car as well.

"Thanks." They both said, Ichigo tucked Uryu back in the blanket and yawned; he was thinking about how Isshin was a lot cooler about them going out than he initially expected, he covered his head with the blanket; Ichigo felt Uryu poking his head under as well and playing with his junk through his jeans, until he felt Ichigo groping him. His eyes widened as he nearly came in his pants, Ichigo snickered when he felt Uryu shaking, but he saw Uryu glaring at him heatedly and being rough with him, until he sharply inhaled as he almost got off in his pants as well. It was Uryu's turn to grin evilly, Ichigo just blushed and turned away, he felt Uryu continue to toy with him, but wasn't objecting to it until he almost made a mess in his pants. He swatted Uryu's hand away,

Uryu gave him a pleading look, but he shook his head; "You're gonna have to wait 'til tonight." Ichigo whispered quietly into his blushing ear, the radio was playing so he wasn't worried that anyone heard him, but he was still quiet just in case Yuzu picked up what he was saying.

The car started and they drove off, past some more fields. Ichigo ate his Danish, it tasted delicious, and he almost felt like reaching over and stealing Uryu's still whole pastry. He glared at Uryu, he wasn't happy that he refused to eat again so he took a largish chunk off, and shoved it into Uryu's yawning mouth, like what he did with the potato chips and waffles the week before. Uryu, with bulging cheeks, gave him a dirty look, he reminded Ichigo of a chipmunk; he swallowed the large bite only to find Ichigo had another chunk ready. This time he opened up and let Ichigo put it in, the ginger smiled and fed him half of the Danish successfully; Karin watched in the rear view mirror with a smile on her face as her brother fed Uryu breakfast.

About 45 minutes later…

"Nii-san… What time is it?" Yuzu craned her neck but couldn't tell the time. Ichigo looked at the clock.

"Quarter to ten."

He looked back to his boyfriend, who was staring at his hand that had 16 years worth of scars on it, he forgot the cause of most of them, but there was a few on his wrist that he inflicted himself. Ichigo looked at his wrist too, a concerned look on his face. He had no idea how he hadn't noticed the slightly faded scars on Uryu's wrist, they were mostly parallel lines that looked like they were deep when he first cut them, he cut up to his elbow, and no further. He silently took Uryu's hand in his own and gazed at his pale inner arm; Uryu decorated it with dark bruises and scars that interrupted his beautifully fair skin. Ichigo felt horrible for not noticing them before, Uryu was trying to tug his arm back but Ichigo held him back with one hand easily, he didn't even notice that Uryu was trying to take his arm out of his grip until he heard a tiny huff from Ishida.

The orange haired boy traced his fingers along the bruises that graced Uryu's thin arm. "Why?" Ichigo whispered so quietly that it looked like he was mouthing it out to Uryu from where he was sitting.

Uryu looked at him, then the floor, then past him to out the window, then back to Ichigo, who was still staring at him. "I-I stopped." He said, thumbing his green t-shirt. Uryu didn't really feel like a Keeper, (remember what his shirt said?), in fact, at the moment, he felt like someone that Ichigo should dump on the side of the road and forget about.

Ichigo decided that he would have to keep an eye on Uryu for a while, to make sure that he wasn't cutting anymore, as he said he was; Ichigo hated not being able to believe what Uryu said now. He turned his back to Uryu, who was staring through the front window, his eyes looked glossy but he shed no tears. They sat in silence until it was around eleven; Yuzu even looked a little down. Ichigo looked to his boyfriend and sighed, the boy looked seconds away from an emotional breakdown. The ginger tried to hug Uryu, and felt the other's trembling arms wrapping around him tightly, he was actually having some difficulties breathing with Uryu's arms clamped tightly around his back. He let a relived sigh out; Uryu wasn't ignoring him at least so he tried to kiss Uryu's cheek, when he did it was wet, and tasted salty, there were tears staining Uryu's cheeks and he looked… Sad.

The radio muffled their next conversation from everyone but themselves. "Uryu… I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…"

"You didn't hurt me… I just didn't think that anyone needed to find out that I cut… It's not a big deal now, I stopped, s-so just please don't bring it up again." He hugged Ichigo tightly, but then Uryu knotted his eyebrows when he felt his boy kiss his lips, he didn't want to kiss right now so he pushed Ichigo's chest back with his hands and when that didn't work he nipped Ichigo's lower lip, but the other took that as a hint to deepen their kiss, despite Yuzu staring at them with a mildly terrified look on her face; Ichigo was "kiss raping" Uryu!

The blue-eyed boy pulled back roughly and socked Ichigo right in the stomach for his stupidity, he was obviously pulling back, Ichigo just wasn't paying attention to him. Ichigo put his hands up to his abdomen and gave Uryu a dirty look, but he then yawned and ignored him because they were approaching another town.

"Hey, isn't this where our cousin lives?" Karin looked past Isshin to the town that they were driving towards.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is." Ichigo looked out the window as well. Isshin pulled in, and Ichigo got a horrified look on his face. "D-dad?"

"Yes?" Isshin turned left.

"… Please tell me we're just visiting him …," Ichigo pleaded.

"He? Who's he?" Uryu looked mildly confused.

"Nope. He's coming with us." Isshin pulled up to the driveway to a largish house, it was painted light brown with dark brown shingles, and there were many lawn ornaments in a huge garden in the front yard.

Uryu heard Karin and Ichigo sigh dramatically. They sounded _exactly_ the same. He looked out the front window to see a male with short brown hair that spiked up like Ichigo's, and light blue eyes, he was wearing a dark blue band t-shirt and he had thin framed glasses. He was holding a bag that he stuffed with clothes and a toothbrush, along with two other bags of contents of which Uryu couldn't identify because the bags were opaque.

"Who's he Ichigo?" Uryu saw him walking towards the car. He looked quite like Ichigo, but he was bright and cheery, and his face had many freckles.

"Tommie." Ichigo put his face in his hands when Isshin stepped out to greet his nephew, and explained Uryu to the brown haired boy.

Ichigo waited for Tommie, his older cousin from his dad's side, to hop in the car with a frown on his face.

When this 'Tommie' sat in the car, he gave one look and Ichigo, then Uryu, who were both being very quiet. It was awkward; Isshin was running inside to talk to his sister, and her in-laws, who didn't really like him that much.

Uryu took his shoes off and tucked his knees under his chin, Yuzu was twiddling her thumbs, Karin was zoning out on her Gameboy, and Ichigo was yawning often, looking to his right occasionally, where his boyfriend was sitting.

Tommie looked over to his cousin and Uryu, who were hiding under the blanket. He tore it off just to annoy them.

"I-Ichigo?" Tommie jumped back a little when he saw his cousin and Uryu were cuddling under the pink blanket.

"Yeah?" The ginger looked up, he regretted being born right now, and Tommie would harass him about this for the rest of his life. Uryu looked back as well; his cheeks were a little red.

"D'aww! You guys are so cute!" Tommie crossed his legs and turned towards them in his seat, readjusting his glasses and yawning. Ichigo was relieved and somewhat confused; his cousin always seemed like the kind of person that would shun him for liking men.

Uryu just shut his eyes and leaned to his left towards Ichigo, and fell asleep quickly with his hand tugging Ichigo's shirt gently.

"So… Is he your boyfriend?" He asked. Tommie was a stupid snoop.

"Why do you care?" Ichigo put his hand on Uryu's back gently.

"Well… I just wanted to know. He's kinda cute." Tommie watched Ichigo stroking the other boy's back gently as he slept.

"Well don't even think about him too hard or I might slap you." Ichigo pulled out his cell phone quickly and texted Renji about how they were going camping, and that they were stuck with his stupid cousin who he now thinks is gay, and about how the car was far too hot. He felt Uryu tugging the blanket higher up, so it was over his shoulders and covering part of his delicate chin. Ichigo smiled at the boy, and then looked to see Isshin twirling the car keys on his index finger and whistling quietly, he opened the door and was surprised that he didn't hear bickering and fighting.

Uryu stretched slightly and opened his eyes when the radio turned back on, it was an old song that he heard on the radio when he was little and liked, so he started to sing along quietly; Yuzu joined in, Ichigo just listened to them harmonizing and smiled. Tommie sat up straight and looked at Uryu again; he wondered how someone like Ichigo, a stupid ginger with an anger problem, managed to pick up someone like Uryu, a cute, even-tempered, fair skinned pretty boy.

Right away Ishida could tell that Ichigo's cousin was the hyperactive kind, he tapped his feet, and twiddled his thumbs, and sometimes he even whistled quietly. It annoyed Ichigo greatly, the ginger occasionally glared at his cousin, who didn't notice it. The song ended and Uryu decided that he would try to snooze to pass his time. Ichigo leaned back in his seat and stretched his arms; he felt Uryu yawning against his chest and smiled.

Tommie looked over to the black haired boy to his left, who was cuddling with Ichigo and squeezing him tightly in his arms. Sighing dramatically, (he was the easily bored type,) Tommie reached in his bag and pulled out a long Garter Snake, and set it on his neck. Ichigo looked at it with eyes widened through fear. He hated snakes.

Uryu sneezed quietly and opened his eyes gently. He looked up to Ichigo with a small smile on his face, and then looked to where his boyfriend's stare was, and jumped slightly. There, coiling around Tommie's neck was a largish snake with an orange stripe down its back. Uryu sat up from where he was lying and leaned over Ichigo, tracing his finger along the bright orange stripe that went down the snake's body. Ichigo watched carefully, he wasn't sure he liked his boyfriend being so close to Tommie, who was looking at Uryu; it pissed Ichigo off, Uryu was paying attention to Tommie and his snake instead of him. (Ichigo is of the jealous type.)

The ginger turned away and looked to the window, the landscape was rolling by, there were hills and plains, the sky had little cloud coverage, and the twelve o'clock sun was glaring right over top of them. Uryu pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and watched the snake's tongue flick out; it was scarlet with a black forked tip. It had a green underside, then a thick black stripe running down its back, and then thin green stripes bordering a slightly thicker orange stripe that tapered at the tip of its tail. Uryu liked the snake, and asked Ichigo if he liked it as well.

"Nope. I don't like snakes." Ichigo looked over to the snake; it was coiling around Tommie's fingers and flickering out its tongue. In the ginger's mind, the snake was scary, big, and ugly, but in reality it was attractive, and only a five or so centimeters in diameter.

"Oh. I think it's cute." Uryu smiled. Ichigo thought Uryu smiling was cute, not the snake that he was talking about. He gave Uryu a hug and kiss on the top of his head when he was sure that Tommie was looking, he wanted his cousin to know that Uryu was _his_.

Ichigo looked out the window again, his arm draping on Uryu's shoulders and his hand on his waist. The black haired boy was resting his head on Ichigo's arm; he had his other hand in between his knees, he was wearing jeans. Ichigo pulled out his cell phone and texted Renji again; they were discussing snakes. Renji likes snakes, and he was trying to get Ichigo to touch the serpent. Ichigo refused and changed the subject. There wasn't much going on, Uryu watched Ichigo text; Yuzu was playing a game on her Nintendo DS, Karin was still on her Gameboy, Isshin just drove ten kilometers over the speed limit, a few hours passed that way, they drove through three towns without stopping. The next one was rather large; it had stoplights, so in Uryu's mind it was enormous. They drove through easily; the traffic wasn't bad until someone tried to cut Isshin off. The parent honked his horn.

"Dad? I think you can stop honking now." Ichigo said; he still heard the car horn going. He looked up to see that Isshin's hands weren't even on the wheel.

"I'm not even honking it!" Isshin looked at the horn, it was still sounding off even though he wasn't touching it whatsoever.

Ichigo put his head in his hands; this was giving him a headache. Uryu put his hand on Ichigo's shoulder and sighed, Tommie did the same. Karin probably didn't even hear what was happening because her iPod was on full volume; Ichigo was considering putting a volume lock on it so she didn't go deaf prematurely.

Uryu looked out the back window to see a police officer on a motorcycle pulling them to the side of the road.

"Um… Isshin, there's a cop." Uryu said, leaning forwards.

'_Shit_.' Isshin pulled to the side of the road and sighed, the horn was still going when he got out. The cop got off his bike and approached them with a stink eye. Uryu stepped out after Ichigo did and they held hands, Tommie followed and told Karin and Yuzu to stay in the car.

They stood there for a long time. The police officer was tall and intimidating, but he kept looking at Ichigo and Uryu, who still had their fingers intertwined despite the dirty look they were receiving from the officer. Isshin stood there awkwardly with Tommie at his side.

"Th-the horn is broken." Tommie spoke up when nobody else did. Ichigo smiled awkwardly before feeling a slight tug at his fingers.

Uryu pulled Ichigo away from everyone else. Isshin was now talking to the cop. The black haired boy sighed lightly, pulled up the car hood, and leaned over, his hands were covered in mucky black stuff but eventually a tick was heard and the annoying honking noises ceased. The cop looked to Uryu, who's previously awesomely green shirt was now covered in black and sticky residue from the engine, his stomach was pressing against all the stuff under the hood. He nodded at the officer, who smiled back at him, and hopped back on his motorcycle to resume his duty.

"What did you do?" Ichigo marveled at his boyfriend, who was wiping his hands off on the damp grass.

"I just disconnected the horn." Uryu hid behind the car and asked Ichigo to pass him a different shirt; he pulled it over his head when he was confident that nobody was looking at him. He wasn't self-conscious or anything, but he was afraid that Ichigo's family would see his hickeys and stuff, that was their little secret. However, it made him wonder what he was going to do for swimming.

"Thanks!" Isshin patted Uryu's back, he nearly knocked the boy over. He was used to being rough with Ichigo, not the, dare I say wimpy Uryu, who flinched when Isshin put his hand on his shoulder. Ichigo, the paranoid bastard, watched them carefully.

The rest of the day went by almost uneventfully. They passed through a few more towns before stopping at a smaller town and pulling into a hotel that had a vacant sign on it. Uryu got up out of the car first, he stretched, it felt good to get out of the claustrophobic vehicle, and it was a little stuffy in the car because nobody was opening his or her windows. Ichigo stretched and got out as well, he watched Uryu's hair floating with the breeze. Karin stumbled out; Yuzu followed her as they walked into the motel.

Ishida and Ichigo were to share a room with Tommie. It made Ichigo a little angry. He was hoping to have some time alone with Uryu, Ichigo didn't even want to be camping, or driving. Ichigo said good night to his sisters and father before unlocking the door to their hotel room. It smelt nice and had two big beds, Ichigo felt like flopping on the bed but he saw Tommie going to the bathroom. He lunged, and shoved his cousin out of the way, and proceeding to go to the bathroom first. Uryu smiled, he was really immature at times.

Tommie sat on the bed and grumbled about how Ichigo was a 'total douche,' and how he really needed to piss.

When Ichigo got back, Tommie raced to the bathroom and relieved himself.

"Hey Ichigo, I bet if we were _really_ quiet we might just be able to…" Uryu lied down on the bed and stripped down to his underwear underneath the blankets, but Ichigo just shook his head.

"I think we should just take a bath and go to bed. Who knows, maybe we'll have to wait until we're done camping." Ichigo lied down beside Uryu, and slipped his hand under the blanket, resting it on Uryu's chest.

"Okay… I guess we could wait too." Uryu turned onto his belly, Ichigo replaced his hand on his back. "I wanna take a bath." They heard Tommie flick on the shower. Uryu put his jeans back on and stood up with Ichigo, who looked out of the window with a ticked look on his face. They could hear the clock ticking, but they said nothing until they heard the shower turn off. The ginger waited for Tommie to get out, and then invited Uryu to take a bath with him. Of course, Uryu said yes, he loved it when they were sick, they bathed and showered together almost every day, it made Uryu feel good to be so close to Ichigo, despite avoiding contact with almost any other person. He wondered why he trusted Ichigo so much, he really didn't like him at first, but his whole "bad boy" façade may have made him seem sexy at first. Uryu knew that it was just a show; Ichigo was actually sweet and caring under the walls that he set up.

Ichigo drew a bath and didn't bother showering first; he didn't care, and Uryu joined him, the water steamed slowly, it made sweat bead on Ichigo's face. He washed his face with his hands and sighed, his knobby knees poked out from the clear water, he was trying not to bug Uryu by touching him with his feet, remembering the only request that Uryu made the first night they met.

Uryu felt his chest getting cold, so he sunk into the water and sighed, his hair was still dry so he got his hands wet and washed his hair, realizing that they forgot the shampoo in the car. He was too tired to be concerned, and apparently, Ichigo didn't mind either. He leaned back when he felt his boyfriend kiss his cheek.

"Hey Uryu…" Ichigo said timidly, he watched the blue eyes across from his open. "C-could you sit in my lap?"

"But I'm so comfy here…" Uryu smiled and looked at Ichigo. He felt Ichigo lifting him into his lap and smiled, it felt a lot more comfortable on Ichigo's knees anyways. He felt his arms get goose bumps; he shivered so Ichigo wrapped his arms around his waist and ran his hands gently up and down Uryu's thin arms, they were almost dry; Ichigo decided to wash Uryu, taking a bar of soap and covering his boyfriend in suds, he looked cute.

Uryu turned his soapy body around and kissed Ichigo's lips, running his hands up and down Ichigo's back, a bar of soap in one of them. He took time to notice just how ripped Ichigo was; he took note of every muscle, and found himself envying every tissue, every fibre of Ichigo.

Yawning and blushing, Ichigo felt Uryu's delicate fingers running over his chest, he sighed when he felt Uryu teasing him under the hot water, his fingernails dug into his palms, and he was trying not to make any noise when he felt his boyfriend's lips on his chest. He kissed Uryu's head gently before pushing back on the boy's bony shoulders. He shuddered when Uryu gave him a look that hauntingly reminded him of a disappointed Yuzu.

"I-I don't want Tommie to hear us." Ichigo whispered.

"What? I'm not gonna scream." Uryu smiled, leaned in and kissed Ichigo's lips sweetly. "Unless you want me too."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

_Hello~! I am back. I know you're all pissed at me for not updating, but some shit has been going down with my family and I've been having a hard time writing especially with so much going on around me. _

_I quickly read through this chapter for proofreading, I hope I didn't fuck it up too bad. It's four in the morning, bear with me. _

_For those of you who don't know, this story is supposed to be set in the months in between the time Ichigo defeated Aizen and the Fullbringer arc. It's still really AU though._

_Feel free to laugh at the parts where I mention pitching tents._

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><p>Uryu looked so small under the thick quilt that Ichigo had tucked him in under. He was threatening to fall asleep, and every time he blinked Ichigo thought he was going to drift off. Ichigo was sitting up beside him, his hand running up and down Uryu's back.<p>

"You look really cute when you're tired." Ichigo looked into Uryu's blue eyes, which looked quite grey in the dark of the room. He played with Uryu's hair for a little while before sliding down to lie beside his boyfriend, who smiled and kissed his nose.

"Good night Ichigo." Uryu mumbled into his arm before falling asleep.

"G'night Uryu." Ichigo stayed up a little while after Uryu dozed off, but he eventually managed to sleep a few hours before Isshin burst into their room.

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><p>"Uryu…" Ichigo nudged Uryu's small, shallow breathing form until his dark blue eyes were slowly becoming aware of the world around him.<p>

He blinked a few times and sat up. "Where are we?"

Ichigo gave Uryu his glasses. "We're in a motel, remember?"

"Oh." Uryu pushed his glasses up his nose and stood up. He noticed that the other bed was empty. "Where is Tommie?" He asked.

"He's getting ready to go." Ichigo said, taking Uryu's hand and giving him some clothes.

Uryu nodded, and pulled on some sweats and a t-shirt, not really caring what he looked like.

"It should be another two hours until we get to the site." Ichigo said when he and Uryu were getting in the car.

Uryu buckled in and they were soon driving down the road again.

Yuzu had the radio on as they drove down the boring road, the yellow plains rolling past them. Most of the time in the car was spent sleeping for the two sisters, Tommie had his phone, Ichigo and Uryu sometimes chatted for the first half of the ride but it got pretty shallow pretty fast.

Uryu gazed out the window, sometimes sighing, sometimes glancing back at Ichigo, who was looking back at him every time. He smiled a little and squeezed Ichigo's hand a little tighter, looking back to the roads that rolled past them.

In time, they managed to get to the campsite early in the morning, they soon all had their tents up, and there was a fire going in the pit. I won't go into detail about all the bickering Uryu and Ichigo made while trying to pitch their tent, or the cursing that Isshin did as he wasted match over match trying to light the damp wood that they cut, but all in all setting up the campsite was somewhat uneventful and boring.

The campsite itself though, is not so boring to hear about. Uryu learned from Ichigo that the site was long-since abandoned, and that his family members were probably the last people to be camping here in many years. Isshin and Masaki came to camp when Ichigo was born because they figured it would be fun to do, and they carved their name on a picnic bench there. This was the main reason that Ichigo's family even bothered to go camping, even though no one else that they knew did. Ichigo also told Uryu about the little trail that he found and told no one else about, and about how one time he saw a skunk and it wasn't very kind to him.

Now, Ichigo was sitting by the fire on a picnic bench. Uryu was close at his side, as usual. It was sort of damp and chilly outside, as it was still early. It was probably going to rain, Uryu could tell. It always smelt good outside before a rain, and the air hung around them like a bathrobe.

Isshin, Yuzu, Karin and Tommie were all busy in their tents, getting sleeping bags ready for themselves.

"I'm kinda tired…" Uryu yawned.

"Well we did kind of stay up really late last night." Ichigo remarked, leaning back in his spot and yawning as well. He wrapped his arm around Uryu's waist in a rather possessive manner and pulled him closer.

Uryu sighed and rested his head on Ichigo's broad shoulder, closing his eyes and letting his shoulders relax for the first time since he woke up. He didn't know why but whenever Ichigo was around, he felt safe, as if nothing could touch him. He drew his knees up to his chin, and leaned entirely on Ichigo, shrinking back as if he was being pushed backwards by some invisible force in front of the bench.

Ichigo glanced at him for a second before looking back to the fire, which was crackling quietly. He prodded it a few times with a big stick that he found by their tent.

"I like fire." Uryu said quietly, when Ichigo sat back down beside him. He immediately returned to Ichigo's shoulder like a dog that .

"Me too." Ichigo replied, watching the little orange-glowing ashes rise into the air before turning grey.

Isshin, Karin, and Yuzu got out of the big tent that they were sharing. They sat down in some lawn chairs that they unfolded by the fire.

"I hope it gets a little warmer soon, because I wanna go swimming in a bit." Yuzu looked up to the solemn, dull grey sky and glared, her big brown eyes looking a little disappointed.

"It'll be warmer tomorrow Yuzu." Ichigo said. "I checked the weather last night."

Yuzu nodded.

"Besides, it's windy so the lake is pretty choppy today. Ichigo wouldn't let us swim in it like that." Karin crossed her arms.

Ichigo nodded.

Yuzu sighed and rested her chin in the palm of her hand.

"Well, not that it isn't boring here, but me and Uryu are gonna take a walk." Ichigo said. He got up and Uryu followed him out of the campsite and onto the dirt road.

"What are they doing?" Yuzu asked.

"Eh… I don't know." Isshin was looking at the little fire that he'd made.

"Are you sad that Ichigo and Uryu love each other?" Yuzu asked.

"No." Isshin replied. "It's fine- but I was really hoping to have grandkids from him."

"I don't think girls are out of the question for Ichigo though." Karin interjected.

"Hm." Yuzu sighed. "Well I thought Rukia was a nice girl. I thought Ichigo liked her."

Isshin nodded. "I wonder where she went…"

Meanwhile, Uryu and Ichigo were walking in a little thicket of trees.

"Why are we here?" Uryu asked, waving at a little squirrel in the tree as if he expected it to wave back.

Ichigo sighed and held a branch for Uryu so that it didn't hit his face. "We're here because when I was nine, I went wandering around here and I found a place that I swore I would keep a secret from everyone."

Uryu nodded. "What's it like?"

"It's quiet."

"So this place you're showing me, did you come back the next year, when you were ten?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo nodded. "And then the next year, pretty much every year that we came here I went wandering in the trees and I always came back to this spot."

"Why?"

They walked right into a little clearing.

Uryu could see why Ichigo liked this place, it was quite nice, and it was so quiet, as if even the wind daren't whisper to the trees here. It was a patch of green grass in a clearing of the green pine trees, and it was somewhat dark in this place, but there were some spots where the sun could shine through.

"Well, I guess when I was nine I was still freaking out about my mom dying." Ichigo paused, "And when I came here, it was so quiet and alone that I felt that this would be a good place to cry about her, because no one was there to see me or hear me blubbering on like a baby."

Uryu nodded. "You don't like crying in front of people?"

"Who does?"

"Well I don't." Uryu sat down by a tree and invited Ichigo to join him.

Ichigo sat down beside his boyfriend and breathed in the smell of pine needles and grass.

"I like this place too." Uryu said quietly.

Ichigo lied down in the grass, Uryu flopped beside him and looked up to the sky, which was still grey, but it seemed to be clearing up a little. There were little patches of blue starting to show through, and it was starting to warm up too.

"What time is it?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo pulled out his cell. It read 11:34. He showed it to Uryu.

"It seems later than that." Uryu remarked. He rested his head on Ichigo's chest.

"Yeah, it does sort of." Ichigo sighed. "What should we do to pass the time?"

"Nothing." Uryu closed his eyes and breathed in the cold air, glad that he had Ichigo by his side to warm him up a little. It took him a while to realize that Ichigo was asleep. He kissed his boyfriend's cheek and brushed his bangs behind his ear. "Well I guess sleeping could count as nothing…" He lied by Ichigo's side, remaining awake, even though he was quite tired from falling asleep late and waking up very early. Thoughts ran through his mind that he didn't allow to for a long time; things had been too busy to just sit there and think as he normally could. He wondered why Isshin even bothered taking him in off the street; he wasn't of any value to Isshin then. Perhaps, Isshin knew him through his father, because they belonged to the same trade? It was a possibility. Uryu decided to look into it a little later. He also pondered on why Ichigo loved him, even though he had to put up with all his bullshit. He felt so fragile and weak when standing next to Ichigo.

"I wasn't always like this…" Uryu whispered, looking at the scars on his wrist. He could feel the cold metal of his cross rolling over the barely-healed wounds that he inflicted on himself. He wondered if he would ever cut again; he prayed not to, because he didn't want to disappoint Ichigo ever again.

Uryu stared at the sky for a for a spell, then to Ichigo, and then to the pine trees, whose tops were swaying gently in the wind. He waited for Ichigo to wake up for a long time, until the sky was darkening.

"Ichigo." Uryu nudged him a few times. "Wake up,"

Ichigo let Uryu help him of the ground and they started walking back to the campsite.

"You took a pretty long nap, Ichigo." Uryu said.

"I can't believe that you sat with me the whole time." Ichigo muttered, still half asleep as they walked through the trees of the clearing. He looked at his phone, (which was only useful for telling the time now due to lack of service,) it was seven PM.

"What were you dreaming about?" Uryu asked.

"Mom."

"Oh."

They walked into the campsite, where Yuzu and Karin were sitting by the fire, and Isshin was whistling to himself. The sun was setting fast, and the sky was turning a navy blue.

"Where were you two?" Karin asked as soon as they sat down. Her tone was far from mad at them, it was more curious than anything.

"Walking around." Ichigo muttered.

"You were just walking for about nine hours?" She asked.

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah."

Uryu nodded too, and looked over to Isshin, who was talking with Yuzu across the campsite about something, by their tent. They were both smiling and laughing.

Tommie walked over and sat down beside Uryu, not caring that they barely knew each other. Uryu noticed his freckles, and the dimples on his cheeks; they were much higher up on his face than anyone else's.

"So where are you keeping your snakes?" Uryu asked.

"In my bag, but I normally have them on my neck when I can." Tommie pointed to the big Garter snake on his neck.

Uryu reached out his hand and ran his fingers along the smooth scales on the snake. "What's its name?"

Tommie smiled. "When I first saw him I tried to kill him with a shovel because I was scared, so I named him Shovel. He's pretty chilled out right now; you can probably try to hold him."

Uryu picked up the snake off of Tommie's neck and let it wrap around his fingers. "Ichigo, look." He held the snake closer to Ichigo, who shied away from it.

"You don't like snakes?" Uryu asked Ichigo, who was sitting at the opposite end of the bench now.

Ichigo shook his head. "I would really prefer if you didn't shove that _thing_ in my face."

Uryu nodded and gave the snake back to Tommie, looking back to the fire. The wood was burning down slowly, and Ichigo sometimes added new logs, but it was still very quiet there, except for the tapping noise that Tommie was making on his phone, and Karin sometimes muttering things about the smoke from the fire getting in her eye.

"Are you guys hungry?" Yuzu asked.

Everyone nodded, except for Uryu, who simply didn't answer.

Yuzu brought out some wieners that they roasted over the fire, and made hot dogs with them. She set out condiments on the table and established a rule that the last person to use them had to put the stuff back, and that if she saw anything left out she would freak out on someone.

Uryu occasionally nibbled at his hot dog but never really got around to eating it, much to Ichigo's annoyance. He looked over to Ichigo, who was surprisingly not breaking his food into little pieces and trying to shove it down his throat.

When Karin, Yuzu, and Isshin were done eating they went to sleep, leaving Ichigo, Uryu and Tommie awake, sitting by the fire.

"Are you tired?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo shook his head. "I just slept for like 8 hours."

"I hope it doesn't mess up your sleep pattern..." Uryu picked at his nails.

"Yeah, we don't need you bitching all day tomorrow." Tommie said, letting Shovel slither down his shirt.

Ichigo glared at him for a second, but then looked to Uryu, who was sitting there, taking little bites out of his hot dog. Ichigo wondered if he planned to ever finish it.

"You still haven't finished your hot dog?" Tommie asked, noticing Uryu's meal wasn't even half finished.

"Nope." Ichigo said flatly. "He eats like a bird."

"Do you want the rest of mine?" Uryu offered Ichigo.

"No, you have to eat." Ichigo moved in a little closer to Uryu and whispered in his ear to eat it up quickly, or Tommie would start asking questions.

Tommie was roasting another two hot dogs for himself. "I don't understand how someone could dislike eating. I list eating as a hobby." He smiled when his hot dogs were charred to the point of them looking inedible, but he seemed very happy with them and ate them with a grin.

"You have dimples, and they're on your cheeks." Uryu pointed out.

"Is that a bad thing?" Tommie asked innocently. "I thought they were normal."

"No, they're nice." Uryu shook his head. "But they aren't normal, I've never seen them before."

Tommie looked back to what he was eating and apparently forgot to respond.

Ichigo made sure Uryu finished at least another hot dog, (which took quite a while,) and in that time, Tommie had finished his other two hot dogs and decided to go to bed.

Uryu, who felt a little bloated from all the food that he ate, put his feet up on the arm of a lawn chair that was nearby and looked over to Ichigo, who seemed pretty pleased about something.

"Hey Ichigo," Uryu spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

Ichigo was staring blankly at the fire. "Yeah?"

"Do you wanna go for a walk?" Uryu asked, stretching out his legs.

Ichigo shook his head. "I wanna stay right here." He sighed. "Come here."

Uryu got up and was going to sit in Ichigo's lap, but a sudden wave of dense spiritual pressure ran over him; it was cold, and reeked of something foul. He looked over to the right, which was where the pressure was coming from, and he saw a hollow emerge from a grove of trees some way off. He ran towards the hollow without any warning, surprising Ichigo, who couldn't see anything that was going on.

He started after Uryu, but was thrust back by some force that he couldn't see, he couldn't even feel it but it had shape, form. He knew that this had to be something related to the spiritual realm that he would've been able to see a few months ago, but he'd lost his powers after defeating Aizen. However, now, that wasn't his main concern. His thoughts were mostly on what his boyfriend was doing, and why he was running away so fast.

"Uryu!" Ichigo called out.

Uryu looked as if he'd been thrown aside by something. He coughed a few times on the ground before getting back up, making a motion similar to one drawing a bowstring back. Ichigo had no idea what was going on, but he had heard stories from Rukia about a race of Shinigami-like people that destroyed hollows with bows and arrows made of spirit pressure. He guessed that Uryu was one of those, but he couldn't quite put a name on whatever Uryu had to be. After calculating that, he tried to get up, but it was almost as if something was pinning him down, like the spell that Rukia put on him the night that he got his powers. The shittiest part of the situation as current was that he had to sit there and watch Uryu fight something that he couldn't see. However, judging by the way Uryu was fighting, his boyfriend could handle what was going on.

Uryu managed to bring down the hollow in a short manner, no thanks to the shinigami that had been dispatched to destroy the monster. He waved them off and told them to go back to whatever they were doing, after they undid the spell that was pinning Ichigo to the ground. He walked back to Ichigo, sweat dripping off his forehead, and his clothes were pretty torn up especially at the knees of the sweatpants that he was wearing, where blood was oozing from.

"What the hell was that?" Ichigo dusted off his jeans as he stood up. "Was it a hollow?"

Uryu jumped a little, surprised by Ichigo's question. He knew that Ichigo knew what just happened. "Y-yeah, it was? Go to bed." He tried to nudge Ichigo back to the tent and kept telling him to go back to sleep, that this was all just a dream, and that he would wake up tomorrow…


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 **

_Sorry for slow updating. You can blame me though I have Rasbergers. (Don't ask it's something retarded that my boyfriend and me came up with.) I recently discovered something totally awesome. I was reading the first volume of Bleach, (which the school librarian likes thanks to me suggesting that she read it,) and I was looking at the little sketches of Rukia and Ichigo at the back of the book, and I learned that Ichigo liking Shakespeare was… Canon! Wow! .-. I dunno I was pretty surprised… thought I'd share. :3 _

_God… I have no idea what I was thinking when I added in Tommie here, I think I had a big old plot planned out to happen when they were camping or something and it involved Tommie or something…. ._. Now… I have no fucking clue what to do with him… :O I'm kinda making this up as I go along too. There isn't much of a plot with this at all… .-. I can't think of anything. This is a bad habit of mine, I jump into writing without a plot in mind so all I manage to get down is some mindless babbling about the events of a day or something. _

_My OCD always kicks in when I'm writing, so I don't know if this chapter's good or not because every five minutes I walked around the house checking if all the clocks were set at the exact same times, or if all the mirrors in my room were straight, or something. I got up to wash my hands like every thirty minutes too. I'm too tired now to re read the entire thing so I just kinda skim read. .-. Not even. _

_Therefore, I might keep up with this camping bullshit for another chapter. _

_**Note: *in a ghetto accent* Hey y'all dis yo author tellin y'all that you BEST be readin dat author's note cuz honey, it be tellin ya lots.**_

Now, for the story.

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><p>"Hey…" Uryu woke up to Ichigo poking and prodding him. "Quit touching me." He sat up and stared at Ichigo, who had an unmistakeable look of confusion on his face. "What's wrong?"<p>

"Something weird happened last night."

Now Uryu looked confused, but he then remembered that the shinigami came and replaced Ichigo's memory. He wasn't sure what they changed it to; in fact, no one was sure.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"No." Uryu felt Ichigo hug him.

"It was awful…" Ichigo squeezed him.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Uryu was having a hard time breathing; it made him feel a little light headed.

"I pushed you and you fell and hurt your knee really bad…" Ichigo looked at the bandage on Uryu's knee.

Uryu looked there too. It seemed that the Shinigami were getting better, the memories that they replaced them to were actually making sense. A long time ago, he knew of a poor old lady that had to be taken to a mental institution because her memory of a hollow attack was replaced by a startlingly graphic and detailed account of her apartment building being suddenly overtaken by cockroaches the size of Danny DeVito. To this day, she still has nightmares. "Why'd you push me?"

"I dunno…" Ichigo still hadn't let go of Uryu. "I was really mad at you."

Uryu sighed. "Well I'm not mad at you."

"Really?"

"Really." Uryu hoped that Ichigo got over this soon, but he wasn't about to try and convince Ichigo it was a dream, he had no idea what effect that could have because the Shinigami's techniques were still a mystery to him. He felt guilty, but he was curious to see what Ichigo was going to do about it. "What time is it?"

"About 9:30." Ichigo said into Uryu's neck. He was happy that Uryu forgave him, but he didn't forgive himself.

"Can I go back to sleep?" Uryu asked.

"Well I guess you can, if you want cereal for breakfast instead of Yuzu's cooking." Ichigo said. "She made eggs and bacon."

Uryu got dressed quickly and followed Ichigo to the picnic table, where they ate a nice warm breakfast that Yuzu made. Isshin and the girls soon after went to the lake for a swim, which left Uryu, Tommie, and Ichigo alone to themselves again.

Uryu was still nibbling at his food, not taking note of Tommie staring at him.

"D'you always eat like that? Your eggs are probably getting cold." Tommie remarked.

Uryu nodded.

"Ya gotta quit that. People are gonna start asking weird questions." Tommie returned to his book after taking a piece of Uryu's bacon.

"I think so too." Ichigo took a piece of Uryu's bacon too, leaving Uryu a piece to himself. "You'll never finish like that."

Uryu nodded again, finishing off his scrambled eggs long after Yuzu put them on his plate. He started on his last piece of bacon.

Tommie looked up from his book about five minutes later, frustrated when he saw Uryu just finishing up his bacon. "You're weird…"

Uryu smiled weakly. "Well I guess I've been called worse."

"Wouldn't doubt it…" Tommie muttered.

Uryu tossed his plate in the garbage and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Ichigo looked at what he was wearing as he walked back.

"Aren't you really warm?" Ichigo asked. It was hot out, even if it was morning, and it'd probably get even hotter; despite this, Uryu was wearing dark wash jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt.

"Nope." Uryu shook his head and sat down beside Ichigo,

Tommie wondered why he felt jealous when he saw Uryu kiss Ichigo's cheek. Was it that Ichigo's facial hair was coming in quicker than his own, or was it that he liked Uryu? Deciding it was the first one, (it was easier to come to terms with,) he skulked back to his tent and finished the second book he read since arriving at the campsite.

"Do you wanna go swimming today?" Ichigo asked.

"If I can…" Uryu looked at his knee, it looked like it'd bled a little through the bandage. It really was a nasty scrape. He was about to complain about it, but he then thought about how Ichigo thought it was his fault. Uryu knew he'd have to be careful about the whole thing.

"I'm so sorry…" Ichigo felt guilt course through his body.

Uryu kissed Ichigo's lips and then looked back to the ground.

They sat there in silence, sometimes Uryu could hear Tommie flipping the page of his book.

"It's hot out today." Uryu said, grabbing a water bottle for him and Ichigo. There wasn't even a breeze out that day.

"Too hot." Ichigo muttered.

"Yeah, sorta." Uryu sighed. He guessed he really did dress too heavily for the day, "I'm gonna get changed."

Ichigo watched Uryu go into the tent. He waited for a bit but he eventually got curious and followed, wondering why Uryu was taking so long to get dressed.

"Uryu? Whatcha doin'?" Ichigo poked his head into the tent to see Uryu was sleeping again. From what Ichigo could see, Uryu did manage to get into a short-sleeved shirt before passing out again.

Uryu muttered something in his sleep and turned onto his stomach, clutching onto the blanket and drawing it in closer to himself. "Yeah, I'll take another scone… yep… That tastes like shit," He was sleep talking again, this time in a funny British accent.

"Well then…" Ichigo sat down beside Uryu's head and ran his hand through his silky hair.

"No I don't want another scone… Nuh uh… Nope." Uryu started pushing something away in his sleep. "What the fuck did I just say?"

Ichigo sat there listening for a while, apparently, Uryu was dreaming about being force-fed scones, which he guessed was some sort of food.

"Get away from me!" Uryu started kicking in his sleep too. "I said I don't want any more fucking scones!"

Ichigo wondered why Uryu was swearing so much but didn't question it because it was pretty funny to hear someone like Uryu swear in a British accent. Still, Ichigo eventually wound up waking up Uryu, partially because he was starting to squirm a lot and looked genuinely scared, and partially because he wasn't sure what a scone was and was curious.

"Uryu."

"Yeah?"

"Have you been drinking?"

"No."

"What's a scone?"

"I have no idea."

"You were talking in your sleep about them. In a British accent." Ichigo started petting Uryu's hair in his sleep.

"Wow." Uryu sat up a little in Ichigo's lap. "What the hell is a scone…"

Ichigo shrugged and resumed running his fingers through Uryu's bangs. "I'll look it up as soon as I get service on my phone." Due to the lack of cell service in the campsite, Ichigo couldn't text, talk, check his facebook, etc. so his phone was reduced to a time-teller, and sometimes a Tetris console. This bothered him; he rarely went a few hours without at least checking his messages or facebook.

"You're always glued to that thing…" Uryu said quietly.

"When you get a phone I'm sure you'll understand." Ichigo looked off.

Uryu wasn't sure he wanted one. Everywhere he turned there was someone zoning out on their phone, looking like a zombie. He thought they looked pretty dumb.

"I could probably put an old one of mine on a plan for you, so you can text people. Or something…" Ichigo muttered the last part.

"I can barely type on a computer Ichigo…" Uryu smiled weakly. "I think a cell phone would just make me feel stupid."

"You'll figure it out." Ichigo moved his hand to Uryu's back and ran his hand up and down. "You're definitely not stupid."

Uryu looked at him upside down from where he was lying. "I guess." He yawned quietly and looked at the book that was peeking out from Ichigo's backpack.

Ichigo looked where Uryu was looking. "Do you want me to read to you?"

Uryu nodded and crawled over, looking for something nice that he could listen to. He never really had anyone besides Ichigo to read to him before.

Ichigo watched Uryu's eyes scan carefully over the books that he brought to camp. He wasn't sure if Uryu liked them or not, his face was pretty blank.

"How about this one?" Uryu handed Ichigo _Moby Dick. _

"Hm. Never read it before…" Ichigo looked over the cover, which was just grey with a whale on the front. There wasn't any blurb on the back to tell him what the book was about, and he hadn't even read it before, but he found it in the bookshelf so he packed it.

"It's really good…" Uryu cuddled up to Ichigo. "But it's pretty long, and the text is small."

Ichigo quickly flipped through the pages, there weren't many illustrations either. "Well I guess we should get started now then, if we're ever to finish it."

Uryu smiled and listened to Ichigo read him the beginning of the tale of Ishmael. They only got through one chapter before they could hear the voices of Isshin and their sisters.

Uryu poked his head out of the tent to see Isshin, Karin, and Yuzu bringing out some food for lunch from the coolers.

"Hi Uryu!" Yuzu said when she saw Uryu's head poking out of the tent. "We just came back to get some lunch, and then we're going back to the lake, you and Ichigo should come this time."

Uryu nodded and said they would, even though he wasn't particularly interested in wading around lake water, it was probably cold and didn't strike him as much of a good time.

Ichigo carefully folded the corner of the page they were on.

"Is swimming in the lake fun?" Uryu asked.

"Sometimes… Kinda depends on the weather. The water isn't cold, and there isn't much seaweed here."

Uryu nodded. He watched Ichigo get into some swimming trunks and decided to follow suit, (no pun intended.)

Ichigo looked over Uryu's body and saw that he was scratched up pretty bad, and another wave of guilt hit him hard. "Oh Uryu…" He walked over and squished Uryu in his arms. He knew he was being emotional but he didn't like to see Uryu with scratches on him.

Uryu realized what Ichigo was sad about, and he felt guilty too. He hugged Ichigo back, having a hard time standing up straight in the tent.

"I can't believe you're not mad at me…" Ichigo gave him a last tight squish in his arms before letting go.

Uryu sighed and stared at his toes. "Well you should start…" He said quietly and walked out of the tent, knowing well that it was his own fault that he was hurt, and he was hiding from the truth, even if it really was for Ichigo's own good. (He wasn't sure that that was true anymore either.)

Ichigo followed Uryu out. Now he felt like he was annoying Uryu, and that bothered him even more.

They helped Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin get the food ready to go to the lake, and Tommie even helped. Then, they all ate some sandwiches and fruit. Isshin and the girls ran off, and again, Uryu was left sitting with Ichigo and Tommie.

He suddenly felt really self-conscious, Tommie and Ichigo both seemed like body builders standing next to him; he was small and somewhat scrawny. Sighing, he wrapped his fingers around Ichigo's and leaned on him.

Ichigo threw rocks at seagulls, not really trying to hit them; he was bored out of his mind. He forgot to bring his books and there wasn't really much to do here other than go swimming, and he didn't really feel like doing that either. He felt Uryu's breath on his shoulder, it bothered him a little, but he didn't want to push Uryu away.

Tommie looked at the two of them holding hands and wasn't sure what to think. He hadn't noticed them cuddling before this. He sort of guessed that Uryu was gay a few minutes after meeting him, but Ichigo was a bit of a shock. The two of them together though, was what really surprised him. Uryu seemed bitchy, too perfect for Ichigo to really relate with, but there was also something about him that was quite charming. Tommie realized that he was staring at Uryu and shuddered a little when he saw Ichigo glaring at him. He really was scary.

Uryu took no notice of either of them, (they were glaring at each other,) he was watching the seagulls flap around.

Yawning, he stood up and walked to the water's edge, feeling the water, (not too hot, not too cold,) lick his toes. He walked in; the water really was nice. He could hear Ichigo and Tommie bickering about something, but didn't bother to listen to why. He felt little goosebumps go up his arms as he walked further and further in the water. It was up to his scraped up knees now; he turned around to see Ichigo was following him into the water.

Tommie yawned and decided to wade in too, swimming around for a little while. He looked over to the couple, who were splashing around a little. It looked like they were trying to see who could swim faster, and of course, Ichigo was winning. Tommie rolled his eyes, Ichigo was always so good at everything.

Uryu never really went swimming around often, when he was little he sometimes went to the public pool with his grandfather, but not enough to get good at swimming, so he sort of just followed Ichigo around until Ichigo got bored and returned to the shore. As soon as Uryu was close enough to the shore to touch the bottom with his toes he got around much faster; he really wasn't good at swimming.

It was around three that Ichigo and Uryu decided to go back to the campsite, they were done swimming around and chatting on the beach. Isshin, Yuzu and Karin still wanted to stay, and they didn't really care about what Tommie was doing.

"Your posture sucks…" Uryu said when he saw Ichigo slouching over the fire. "Your back is gonna hurt really bad when you're older."

"Well it feels pretty good now…" Ichigo sat up, he heard his back crack loudly. "And now it feels even better. Magic."

Uryu rolled his eyes. "I'm hungry."

"I never thought I'd hear that from you." Ichigo teased, but didn't get much of a reaction from Uryu, who just stared at him, looking somewhat irritated. "Make yourself something to eat then."

"What can I have to eat though?" Uryu asked shyly. He'd been with the Kurosaki family for a long time now, but he never really went into their fridge for something to eat, and when he did he was normally just helping with dinner.

"Find something…" Ichigo yawned.

Uryu looked in the cooler and found some marshmallows, and ate a great deal of them before he looked a little sick.

"Was that really the best thing you could find?" Ichigo asked when he saw Uryu throwing up behind a bush.

"They seemed like a good idea at the time…" Uryu muttered. He was still holding the mostly-eaten pack of marshmallows. He spat a few times and then grabbed a bottle of water to wash the nasty taste of vomit out of his mouth.

"When I said something to eat I didn't mean garbage…" He kissed Uryu's head. "You're so dumb sometimes…"

Uryu smiled weakly, feeling stupid. He did love marshmallows, and pretty much any other candy he could get his hands on, but they really didn't agree with his stomach. He did finish off the bag before long though, even though Ichigo advised against it.

"So you're just picky? That's why you don't eat much?" Ichigo asked, noticing Uryu throwing out the bag.

"I don't know." Uryu shrugged Ichigo off and went to the tent. "I'm getting changed."

Ichigo followed Uryu into the tent, and changed into his normal clothes again. He looked at Uryu, who was wearing an old shirt of his; it was light blue and fit him nicely, hugging him in some places and loose in others; he really did look hot in it.

Ichigo looked down at what he was wearing, he never really thought about what he was putting on as he was putting it on, resulting in some rather interesting outfits on the weekends. But, he did look okay.

"Your socks don't match…" Uryu said quietly.

"Whatever." Ichigo smiled when he looked down at his socks, one was striped and the other had polka dots.

Uryu smiled too and walked out of the tent after Ichigo to see Tommie was already back in the campsite.

"Did you guys actually manage to eat an entire bag of marshmallows?" Tommie asked, noticing that one of the four bags of marshmallows that they brought was gone without a trace.

"That was Uryu." Ichigo said quickly.

Uryu nodded, his cheeks a little red. "I was sort of hungry."

Tommie stared at Uryu blankly. From what he saw that morning, Uryu didn't seem to be much of an eater, much less someone that'd burn through a whole bag of marshmallows just because he was 'sort of hungry.' "Did you throw up?"

"Teeny bit…" Uryu mumbled.

"I wouldn't doubt it." Tommie got up and walked over to the fire, poking it with a stick. "Well we have lots left anyways, I don't know why we brought so many."

Uryu felt Ichigo tugging on his arm.

"Can we go for a quick walk?" Ichigo asked quietly.

Uryu nodded and held Ichigo's hand as they walked out of the campsite; Ichigo slowed down as soon as they got out of the campsite.

"Why are we going for a walk?" Uryu asked.

"Because I just wanted to go for a walk." Ichigo squeezed Uryu's hand.

"So Tommie's actually pretty cool." Uryu said.

"I think he likes you. Which is weird, I think he's straight." Ichigo said.

Uryu noticed his brow furrow. "Well that's not so bad… He could hate my guts or something." He said calmly. He noticed a little jealousy in Ichigo's voice.

Ichigo nodded. He realized he was getting really attached to Uryu, and as he realized this he loosened his grip on Uryu's hand.

Uryu kept walking at Ichigo's side, noticing a bit of a change in Ichigo's demeanor. He didn't say anything but he could feel Ichigo distancing himself a little.

"So, did you like swimming?" Ichigo asked after a little while of quiet.

"Yeah, it was pretty fun…" Uryu said. Ichigo normally didn't try to make small talk, and it made him wonder why exactly Ichigo didn't want to just stay at the campsite.

"I was kinda worried about you, you can't swim very well." Ichigo said sheepishly. He didn't remember what exactly he wanted to talk about with Uryu when he dragged him out there.

"Yeah, I can barely keep my head above water." Uryu stared off.

Ichigo looked at Uryu, who had a blank look on his face. He didn't look like he was interested in walking around; he actually seemed tired and bored.

"Do you wanna find somewhere to sit?" Ichigo asked.

Uryu nodded without a word, and followed Ichigo around until they found an old hiking trail sign; it was abandoned and looked like no one had been there for a while.

"Looks kinda… scary." Uryu said. When he looked down the trail all he could see were birch trees stretching out in every direction.

"Are you gonna come with me?" Ichigo asked.

Uryu nodded, guessing he wouldn't have much of a choice. He walked behind Ichigo down the trail; there weren't many interesting things to see on the trail at first. Sometimes there were little blackbirds, rabbits, skunks, and other typical animals you see every day.

"There isn't much here…" Uryu said. The forest was grey, there weren't many leaves on the trees and it seemed somewhat marshy. He could see a lake off in the distance.

"There are little turtles in that lake." Ichigo started walking a little faster. Uryu picked up his pace as well.

They eventually got to the lake, which was boggy and dark brown in colour.

Uryu watched Ichigo wading into the lake. "I hope there aren't any crayfish in there."

Ichigo felt something touch his toe so he reached in the lake and retrieved a little turtle, no bigger than a saucer.

Uryu walked over and Ichigo passed him the little turtle. He looked at the little creature for a while, and Ichigo picked up another. They were both a pale green with yellowish brown patterns on their shells. They didn't seem to mind having people pick them up, Uryu could even kiss its head.

"I wonder if it's a girl or a boy." Uryu said.

"This one seems like a guy." Ichigo looked at the one that he was holding. "But I dunno."

"Meh… I'll just say he's a boy." Uryu said, holding the turtle in his arms. "Are they just babies now?" Uryu asked.

"I dunno. We should put them back through, just in case we mess with nature or something." Ichigo said flatly, and watched Uryu return the little turtle to the pond, and then did the same himself.

They walked through the forest for a long time, sometimes chatting, sometimes holding hands, never straying far from the trail until they got to the other side.

They were now surrounded by a bunch of campsites that Ichigo didn't recognize at all; they were all overgrown and some were hardly recognizable.

"Well that was a nice walk. Now, where are we exactly?" Uryu asked.

Ichigo looked all around him. There was an endless expanse of campsites that he didn't recognize surrounding the two of them, and he had no idea where they were.

"Good question…"

* * *

><p>Dun dun dun!<p>

*AN: how do you like my attempt at being witty?


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